Addendum to GPT-5 System Card: Sensitive conversations

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Summary

OpenAI released an update to GPT-5 on October 3 to improve handling of sensitive conversations around mental and emotional distress, reducing inadequate responses by 65-80% through collaboration with 170+ mental health experts. The company published a system card addendum and safety evaluations comparing the new model to the previous August 15 version.

This system card details GPT-5’s improvements in handling sensitive conversations, including new benchmarks for emotional reliance, mental health, and jailbreak resistance.
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# Addendum to GPT-5 System Card: Sensitive conversations Source: [https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-system-card-sensitive-conversations/](https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-system-card-sensitive-conversations/) When we launched GPT‑5, we[noted⁠](https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-system-card/)in the system card that we were working to establish better benchmarks and to continue to strengthen model safety in areas related to mental and emotional distress\. On October 3, we deployed an[update⁠\(opens in a new window\)](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9624314-model-release-notes)that reflected those efforts, improving ChatGPT’s default model to better recognize and support people in moments of distress\. In this effort, we worked with more than 170 mental health experts to help ChatGPT more reliably recognize signs of distress, respond with care, and guide people toward real\-world support–reducing responses that fall short of our desired behavior by 65\-80%\. We are publishing a related[blog post⁠](https://openai.com/index/strengthening-chatgpt-responses-in-sensitive-conversations/)that gives more information about this work, and this addendum to the GPT‑5 system card to share baseline safety evaluations\. These evaluations compare the[August 15 version⁠\(opens in a new window\)](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes#h_6b1adafe01)of ChatGPT’s default model, also known as GPT‑5 Instant, to the updated one launched October 3\.

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