A week in Generative AI: Personality, SIMA 2 & Group Chat
News for the week ending 16th November 2025
This week we had the launch of GPT-5.1 from OpenAI alongside new personality settings, SIMA 2 from Google DeepMind, and news that OpenAI are trialling ChatGPT in new group chats.
In Web 4.0 news we had Mozilla joining the AI browser wars, and a good podcast from OpenAI on ChatGPT Atlas and the next era of web browsing. There was also news that three AI-generated songs topped the Billboard and Spotify charts. Sigh đŽâđ¨.
Thereâs also a good Long Read from Understanding AI on how AI ads are going mainstream that has some good follow up on the Coca-Cola ad I wrote about last week.
OpenAI launches GPT-5.1 with new personalities
OpenAI launched GPT-5 in August, and now 3 months later we have GPT-5.1, which makes ChatGPT âsmarter and more enjoyable to talk toâ. OpenAI describe the new model as âwarmer, more intelligent, and better at following your instructionsâ and say that it should be faster at simple tasks and more persistent at more complex tasks.
Most interestingly though, OpenAI have included new personality settings with the introduction of the new model, something I think will be an important area for users to be able to control. There are now 8 personality settings to choose from:
Default (balanced style ad tone)
Professional (polished and precise)
Friendly (warm and chatty)
Candid (direct and encouraging)
Quirky (playful and imaginative)
Efficient (concise and plain)
Nerdy (exploratory and enthusastic)
Cynical (critical and sarcastic)
OpenAI have also said that they will debut new experimental ways for users to fine-tune ChatGPTâs style further, which theyâve already started testing with some users. Iâm looking forward to seeing what these look like and whether theyâve decided to use the OCEAN 5 big personality traits for this, my preferred HEXACO model, or something else entirely.
If youâre interested in another take on this, John Gruber has some good commentary on the new personalities.
SIMA 2: An agent that plays, reasons, and learns
I wrote about the launch of the first SIMA model from Google DeepMind back in March 2024. Back then it was very simple - they were training a model to be able to play a variety of 3D games to then learn how to navigate the real world.
With this second model, the ambition is still the same, but they now have an AI that can play 3D games and learn on its own as well as transfer the learnings from one game to another. This sounds really simple for us, but is something that AI finds incredibly difficult and a great example of Moravecâs Paradox - easy for humans = hard for computers and vice versa.
We wonât see the results of this research in the real world for a few years, but it lays the foundation for AI models that are continuously learning and able to generalise these learnings and apply them to lots of different situations, much like people do. Current AI models canât do this and its one of the biggest things holding them back.
ChatGPT gaining group chat feature in four regions
It looks like OpenAI is increasingly trying to rebuild the entire internet one piece at a time on top of ChatGPT. Hereâs a timeline of the big features theyâve announced over the last 12 months or so:
Oct 2024 - ChatGPT Search (Search)
Apr 2025 - ChatGPT Shopping (Shopping)
Sept 2025 - OpenAI Jobs Platform (Hiring)
Sept 2025 - Sora 2 (Social Media)
Oct 2025 - ChatGPT Apps (Services)
Oct 2025 - ChatGPT Atlas (Browsing)
The latest product theyâre trialing is ChatGPT Group Chats (Messaging), which I think is really interesting. In the Group Chats you can collaborate with other people, as well as use ChatGPT to help. You can mention ChatGPT directly to get it to respond, but OpenAI have also taught ChatGPT new social behaviours for group chats. It follows the conversation and decides when to respond and when not to. This is going to be an increasingly important skill for AI to learn as they become more proactive in our lives, something Iâve written about before.
There are still a few big areas of the internet for OpenAI to go after - Email, Banking (and other admin) and News consumption. Thereâs a chance that ChatGPT Pulse evolves into a news product, and Banking will be hard (although I do think theyâll go there). So my money is Email being the next area that OpenAI goes after.
Web 4.0
OpenAI Podcast - ChatGPT Atlas and the next era of web browsing
AI Ethics News
AI slop tops Billboard and Spotify charts as synthetic music spreads
Powering AI Could Soon Use as Much Water as 10 Million Americans
Datacenters meet resistance over environmental concerns as AI boom spreads in Latin America
Lies, damned lies and AI: the newest way to influence elections may be here to stay
AI is Most Popular with People Earning Six Figures, Study Shows
Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine sign voice deal with AI company
ChatGPT violated copyright law by âlearningâ from song lyrics, German court rules
Somebody to love: should AI relationships stay taboo or will they become the intelligent choice?
Long Reads
One Useful Thing - Giving your AI a Job Interview
Understanding AI - AI ads are going mainstream
âThe future is already here, itâs just not evenly distributed.â
William Gibson