The Seven Voices Behind Every ChatGPT Answer
There are several characters you’re negotiating with to get a good response. Time to meet them.
If you think you're having a quiet, one on one chat with ChatGPT (or any other LLM), you're not. There are other voices in the room.
Behind every response is a cast of invisible characters, each shaping the answer you see. Some whisper reminders. Others enforce rules. And a few quietly override your requests altogether.
This isn’t bad news. In fact, once you know who’s in the room, you can start getting better, more useful answers. So let’s meet the voices behind ChatGPT, so you can understand who’s shaping the response.
Voice #1: The Rulemaker
Sitting at the head of the table is the System Instructions, the first and loudest voice.
This voice sets the boundaries. No medical advice without disclaimers. No breaking the law. No generating disallowed content. It also covers other backstage basics: how formatting works, when tools are allowed, and how the AI is expected to behave across different situations.
You can’t see this voice or change it. But it’s always in the room, and it always wins arguments.
Voice #2: The Airbnb Host
Next comes Developer Instructions. Think of these as the house rules your Airbnb host left for you. You don’t get to write the rules, but they define how things should work while you're in their house.
These instructions are set by the product team at OpenAI. They decide what tools are available (like web search, or image generation), how memory is handled, and how ChatGPT should respond to common situations. And they change depending on where you’re using ChatGPT. The "house rules" are different in the web app, the API, or a third party integration.
Tip: If ChatGPT behaves differently depending on where you use it, these instructions are the reason. They're not personal; they’re product defaults.
Voice #3: The Memory Intern
Now picture a wall full of sticky notes. This is Memory, a place where ChatGPT can store facts about you from your past conversations.
Here’s the trick: every time you send a new message, an internal system (like a fast-moving intern) scans the board and decides whether to pull in any of those notes for this conversation. Only a few ever make it through; sometimes none at all.
You don’t control when the notes get used, but you do control what goes on the board.
To edit or view your memories in ChatGPT:
Click on your avatar in the upper right corner → Settings → Personalization → Manage Memories. You can review what’s saved, delete anything you don’t want, or turn memory off entirely.
Tip: Use memory for long term facts you want ChatGPT to recall occasionally. For one time instructions, just include them in your prompt.
Voice #4: Your Instruction Manual
This voice comes from Custom Instructions, your way of setting the default personality for ChatGPT.
You can tell it to "Be concise," or "Respond like a consultant," or "Avoid emojis." You can also tell it to be less of a sycophant. These instructions shape ChatGPT’s behavior across all chats, even when you don’t repeat them every time.
But they’re not set in stone. If your current prompt contradicts your custom instructions, the prompt usually wins for that message.
To adjust your custom instructions:
Click on your avatar in the upper right corner → Customize ChatGPT.
Tip: Use custom instructions to set durable preferences. You can tell it how you want it to talk to you, and details about yourself that could be helpful for future conversations. If you don't know what to put there, ask ChatGPT.
Voice #5: The Echo
This is Chat History, the memory of your current conversation with ChatGPT.
ChatGPT keeps track of what’s been said so it can stay coherent, avoid repeating itself, and refer back to earlier ideas. But there’s a limit. The model only has room for so much, and once the conversation gets long, older messages start getting trimmed. This doesn't happen often, as ChatGPT can "remember" the equivalent of a 300 page book before it starts forgetting.
The rule set voices stay. Your earlier inputs? Not always.
Tip: If ChatGPT forgets something from earlier in the thread, it’s not being lazy; it just ran out of space. If it's forgetting crucial information, it's time to start a new chat.
Voice #6: You
Finally, there’s your prompt, the most immediate, most detailed voice in the room.
Your prompt tells ChatGPT exactly what you want: "Summarize this in three bullet points." "Write it like a sales email." "Use simple language." Usually, this voice takes the lead for that turn, unless it directly conflicts with a safety rule or house policy.
Tip: Prompting is a non technical skill, and one that has an enormous impact on the quality of the outputs that ChatGPT will give you. Learning how to do this well is worth the investment.
Voice #7: The Bouncer
Even after ChatGPT generates your answer, there’s one last step: post-processing.
Think of this as the bouncer at the door of the conversation. This system takes one last look before the response gets to you. If the answer violates safety policies, includes prohibited content, or needs cleanup, it may be edited, blocked, or quietly reformatted. You usually won’t notice unless your question bumps up against a hard rule. The bouncer doesn’t negotiate. Its job is to keep things safe and presentable.
So Why Does This Matter?
Because ChatGPT isn’t a single voice. It is a stacked conversation, a negotiation among rules, preferences, memory, and your prompt.
Now that you know who’s in the room, you can start running the meeting with more control:
Use your prompt to guide the task clearly and specifically.
Use custom instructions to set your tone or give a background about you.
Use memory to store what’s genuinely useful long term. Prune away what isn't.
The Takeaway: Direct the Scene
You’re not just typing into a box. You’re entering a room full of influential voices. The Rulemaker sets the boundaries. The Airbnb Host defines the setup. Memory whispers now and then. History shapes continuity. And your prompt? That’s you directing all of the other voices to chime in.
Now that you know the cast, you can start directing the scene.
