This analysis describes what OpenAI's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
The provision creates a tiered governance structure in which OpenAI retains policy authority over permissible modifications, operators exercise delegated configuration authority, and end users receive only those modification capabilities their operators choose to grant. This architecture enables customization while establishing OpenAI's baseline control over the permissible scope of all modifications.
End users' ability to modify GPT-4o's behaviors is contingent on operator authorization and cannot exceed the permissions OpenAI has granted to that operator. Users operate under default behaviors and any modifications operators have explicitly enabled, rather than being able to independently alter the model's default configuration.
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"Operators can expand or restrict GPT-4o's default behaviors, i.e. how it behaves without any additional instructions, to the extent that they are permitted to do so by OpenAI's policies. Operators can give the model a specific set of instructions, a persona, or information. Operators can expand GPT-4o's defaults for users... Operators can restrict GPT-4o's defaults for users... Operators can grant users the ability to expand or change GPT-4o's behaviors in ways that go up to but don't exceed their own operator permissions.— Excerpt from OpenAI's GPT-4o System Card (PDF)
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The provision creates a tiered governance structure in which OpenAI retains policy authority over permissible modifications, operators exercise delegated configuration authority, and end users receive only those modification capabilities their operators choose to grant. This architecture enables customization while establishing OpenAI's baseline control over the permissible scope of all modifications.
End users' ability to modify GPT-4o's behaviors is contingent on operator authorization and cannot exceed the permissions OpenAI has granted to that operator. Users operate under default behaviors and any modifications operators have explicitly enabled, rather than being able to independently alter the model's default configuration.
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