Unexpected metadata tags appear in GPT response output

ChatGPT Bugs
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1

When using ChatGPT, the generated output sometimes contains raw internal metadata tags that should not be visible to the user. Instead of clean, human-readable text, the response includes fragments like:

:contentReference[oaicite:36]{index=36}
    :contentReference[oaicite:37]{index=37}
    :contentReference[oaicite:38]{index=38}
        :contentReference[oaicite:39]{index=39}
        :contentReference[oaicite:40]{index=40}
            :contentReference[oaicite:41]{index=41}
        }
        :contentReference[oaicite:42]{index=42}
    :contentReference[oaicite:43]{index=43}
        None
    }
}

These look like internal reference markers or debug metadata, and their appearance disrupts the readability and usefulness of the response.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Interact with ChatGPT (specific prompt or context may trigger the issue).
  2. Observe output containing raw metadata tags in the response text.

Expected behavior:
The output should be clean, formatted text without any internal metadata or debug tags visible.

Actual behavior:
Response text contains raw metadata tags such as :contentReference[...] that appear to be internal references or debug info mistakenly rendered in the final output.

Additional context:

  • This issue is related to the text generation or rendering pipeline in ChatGPT, not related to OpenAI API usage or SDK.
  • Occurs intermittently during conversations.
  • This report was generated by ChatGPT as a test to address detected errors.
1 Like
2

So, I cannot state this with certainty, but the issue is as follows:

  • ChatGPT knows how its internal logic works

  • ChatGPT does not know which parts are public or private

  • ChatGPT can discuss its internal structure

Thus, the problem is not so much an error between handlers during response generation, but rather that these are typical public examples for it:

:contentReference[oaicite:36]{index=36} — a reference to citation with index 36  
:footnote[fn2]{index=17} — a footnote with identifier fn2 and index 17  
:sectionHeader{title="Introduction"} — a section header

I believe that knowledge of markup issues is limited, but the greatest risk is that one can freely discuss the full internal architecture of ChatGPT.