OpenAI tells ChatGPT to stop impersonating famous authors

On the heels of a $1.5 billion copyright infringement ruling against Anthropic, OpenAI has adjusted ChatGPT’s programming to refuse requests to mimic the style of well-known authors. While the chatbot used to happily write in the voice of professional writers, attempts to convince it to do so now are met with a polite refusal and an suggested alternative. Fast Company , for instance, asked ChatGPT to write a story about a family in the Depression in the voice of John Steinbeck. The chatbot repli

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ethics.ai (28 July 2026), “OpenAI tells ChatGPT to stop impersonating famous authors,” evidence record 14294, https://ethics.ai/record/14294 (originally published by Fast Company Tech).

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