Users snub ChatGPT's "peppy" Advanced Cove voice

The "uncanny valley" of expressive AI: OpenAI's push for hyper-expressive audio backfired by stripping away the stoic, mentor-like qualities that made Cove a fan favorite.

• –Technical latency improvements are secondary to "personality consistency" for power users.
• –The shift from deep and masculine to higher-pitched and "too cheery" highlights the difficulty of scaling unique AI personas across different model architectures.
• –User "mourning" and the use of "incantations" (custom instructions) to fix the voice suggests a deep emotional attachment to specific AI timbres.
• –Reverting to Standard Mode sacrifices features like seamless interruption just to get the "old" voice back—a clear sign of a failed UX update.