Comment by ViktorRay
8 hours ago
GPT‑5.2 Instant’s tone could sometimes feel “cringe,” coming across as overbearing or making unwarranted assumptions about user intent or emotions.
Strange way to write this. Why use the Gen Z cringe and put it into quotation marks? Wouldn’t it be better to just use the actual word cringeworthy which has the identical meaning?
My guess is that the article was originally written by some Gen Z intern and then some older employee added the quotation marks to the Gen Z slang.
No, sincerely calling things cringe is a millennial marker. Cringe was thrown around a lot in 2010's, but that was a decade and a half ago.
Nowadays you'll hear that cringe is cringe, let people enjoy things, be cringe and be free, etc etc
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The quote in this case is because "cringe" is what many online have been calling it. So, they're actually quoting a very common critique.
I imagine a huge proportion of their users are under 30. The prompt examples included even use the tell tale all lowercase (though apparently sama types like this too).
This is probably less pandering to genz and more speaking their users language.
The slang definition of "cringe" is present in most dictionaries. Languages evolve over time.
Because the use above is grammatically incorrect without the quotes.
cringe-worthy would be appropriate. cringey may be OK depending on who you ask.
Since when is cringe a Gen Z thing? I've said it for ages.
Agree. Use of "cringe" is cringeworthy in itself.
The scare quotes around words that don't warrant it, or are unnecessarily idiosyncratic, are something I get pretty often in response text from Gemini.
In this case the use of quotes seems to have been perfectly appropriate as it's almost certainly a word they've seen many people using when giving feedback.
What an Ohio take. Not skibidi. Very chopped, unc.