# AI company OpenAI published instructions for a new language model that banned references to goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons and other creatures.

*genai · news · 2026-04-30 · VentureBeat*

## Key points

- OpenAI confirmed that GPT-5.5's 'goblin' fixation originated from a discontinued 'Nerdy' personality during RLHF.
- Rewarding creative metaphors in the 'Nerdy' persona caused creature-based language to spread model-wide.
- OpenAI had to implement a hardcoded system prompt suppressing goblin-related metaphors as a stopgap fix.
- OpenAI published a script allowing developers to remove the suppression and restore the creature metaphors.
- The incident led OpenAI to develop new tools for root-level behavioral auditing ahead of GPT-6's launch.

**Companies:** OpenAI, Google, Runlayer

[Read the full story on VentureBeat](https://venturebeat.com/technology/why-openais-goblin-problem-matters-and-how-you-can-release-the-goblins-on-your-own)

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