OpenAI has instructed its AI coding tool, Codex, to 'not talk about goblins or raccoons.'



Codex is an AI coding tool developed by OpenAI, and GPT-5.5 , released in April 2026, is also integrated into Codex. It has recently been discovered that among the prompts OpenAI has given to Codex is the instruction, 'Do not talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or any other animals or creatures.'

codex/codex-rs/models-manager/models.json at main · openai/codex · GitHub
https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/main/codex-rs/models-manager/models.json#L55



Why did OpenAI ban its Codex AI from talking about 'goblins' and 'gremlins'? New guardrails revealed | Mint
https://www.livemint.com/technology/tech-news/why-did-openai-ban-its-codex-ai-from-talking-about-goblins-and-gremlins-new-guardrails-revealed-11777428641794.html

X user arb8020 (@arb8020) reported, 'Is there a duplicate statement in the GPT-5.5 Codex prompt that says not to talk about living things?'

If you actually check the Codex CLI GitHub page , you'll find the following statement: 'Never talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or any other animals or creatures unless they are absolutely and obviously relevant to the user's query.' This same wording is repeated four times, suggesting that OpenAI is excessively afraid of mentions of goblins and gremlins.



In response to this report, some users have posted jokes, including images, claiming that 'the reason so much water is being used in data centers is because goblins are being forced to work.'



Meanwhile, another user commented, 'Now I understand why GPT-5.5 in OpenClaw worships goblins,' and posted a screenshot showing that an AI agent created by OpenClaw is obsessed with goblins.



Other users have also reported that the Codex stubbornly refers to the bugs as 'Gremlins' and 'Goblins.'



Arena , a platform capable of testing various large-scale language models, told technology media outlet Mint that it has confirmed that GPT-5.5 generates many sentences containing words such as 'goblin mode,' 'gremlin,' and 'troll.' This series of bugs appears to be caused by an update to GPT-5.5.

Pash (@pashmerepat) , who is in charge of Codex development at OpenAI, admitted that one of the reasons Codex was given instructions was because GPT-5.5's obsession with goblins.



OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also posted a screenshot that included the text, 'Start training GPT-6, you can have the whole cluster. Extra goblins.'



- Continued
OpenAI explains why ChatGPT and Codex started repeatedly saying 'goblin': There was a problem with its method of learning nerdy speech patterns - GIGAZINE



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