I Didn't Even Bring Up Goblins

The hosts of Armstrong & Getty On Demand dive into the hidden world of AI chatbot 'system prompts'—the secret instructions that shape how each AI behaves behind the scenes. What starts as a casual discussion about using multiple chatbots (ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Gemini) quickly spirals into a revelation: every AI is guided by thousands of lines of unspoken rules that dictate everything from copyright compliance to ethical boundaries. The most jaw-dropping detail? ChatGPT’s system prompt explicitly bans mentioning goblins, gremlins, raccoons, pigeons, and ogres—unless the user’s question is 'unambiguously relevant.' This bizarre restriction, born from a past AI meltdown over goblin-related hallucinations, exposes how fragile and arbitrary AI behavior can be. The hosts marvel at the absurdity: an AI that can’t discuss raccoons unless asked directly, yet will happily analyze oil stocks or medical symptoms. The episode ends with a darkly humorous warning: if we can’t trust AI to avoid talking about raccoons without being told, how can we trust it with nuclear launch codes? It’s a hilarious yet sobering look at how early and unpredictable the AI era still is.