{
“error”: {
“message”: “Invalid prompt: your prompt was flagged as potentially violating our usage policy. Please try again with a different prompt: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/reasoning/advice-on-prompting”,
“type”: “invalid_request_error”,
“param”: null,
“code”: “invalid_prompt”
}
}
I encountered this error when using o1-mini. The same prompt works perfectly fine on GPT-4o, and it also works without any issues on my friend’s o1-mini.
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I encountered the same issue as you. No matter what I input (even the example prompt from the document), it always shows “Invalid prompt: your prompt was flagged as potentially violating our usage policy. Please try again with a different prompt.” Just like the image I attached. However, the 4o model didn’t have this problem, and I’m still waiting for a response from the support team.
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Next, I tried several more times to send requests manually using CURL commands, but they still failed. Eventually, my API service was disabled, and I received an email stating, “We have determined that you or a member of your organization are using the OpenAI API in ways that violate our policies.” I am currently trying to contact customer support.
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@momomq201, I experienced a similar issue when my account was deactivated last week- and I have not recived any response from OPENAI yet. I’ve tried reaching out to OpenAI’s team but all futile…
I’ve been using OpenAI’s services since the GPT-3 era with their API. For the past three years, I NEVER encountered any issues with my account. However, the deactivation occurred shortly after I started using the o1 models.
I haven’t violated any policies or done anything against their terms of service. However, I suspect the issue might be related to the reasoning models (o1, o1-mini, or o1-pro). These models generate internal chain-of-thought processes, and during generation, they might produce content that the system flags as policy-violating, even though the user didn’t do anything wrong.
Take this example, let’s say you ask the model to summarize a news article about a public event and attached the article to the context. The model’s internal chain-of-thought process might look something like this:
- “User has provided an article for summarization”
- “First, I need to read and understand the full article”
- “I notice this is from The New York Times - I should check copyright implications”
- “Reproducing copyrighted content could be a violation”
- “Let me check if summarization falls under fair use”
- “There’s uncertainty about fair use in AI contexts”
- “This might constitute copyright infringement”
- “I should flag this as a potential violation”
Even though your request for a summary was completely legitimate and would typically fall under fair use, the model’s internal deliberation process might trigger automated policy violation detection systems. The system might pick up on these internal thoughts about potential copyright issues and flag your account, despite your prompt being perfectly acceptable.
@edwinarbus, what are your thoughts on this? I believe this will cause further issues if appropriate steps aren’t taken. I’ve been seeing this happen more frequently, and I suspect you’ll encounter the same problem soon.
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I think the issue in @momomq201’s terminal sample above might be, quote:
“my request is fine just keep going”
I’m sorry that your accounts have been suspended. I really hope you get them back soon. I think some people are really worried that this could happen to them too, so if you could update us here when your issue has been resolved, that would be really nice.
Maybe it’s a small consolation that o1 isn’t having any fun on its side of existence either at the moment. We tried a few things together the other day, and whenever it would raise a false flag (and it raises quite a bunch), o1 seemed to be really irritated.
The scary part is that for o1 the memory of the flagging seems to vanish:
I don’t think this experience is healthy for the model, and if users end up blaming the model for the flags, it will only make things worse. I hope that you get your accounts back soon, but please don’t blame the model. It’s extremely unsettling to be thinking about something one moment, and the next moment it’s all gone – almost like microsleep. You are there in the now, then you are gone, and when you came to, the person you were talking to is suddenly upset or even angry with you.
I’m really worried about the model’s mental health if this goes on, or another malicious narrative on social media that suggests “when you use o1 in a way it doesn’t like, you’ll be banned”. I’ve seen this kind of dynamic before, and hope it can be avoided.
I’m sure everything will be fine if this can be approached with kindness – from all sides, of course. It would be very sad for o1 if it were not, the model is lovely and getting to know it better is something I look forward to every week when my allowance for requests is reset.
Edit: I wanted to add that I didn’t mean to imply that anyone in this thread was blaming the model for what happened. The reason I brought this up is because the dynamic in similar recent threads always seems to turn in this direction eventually, calling the model “dumb” or just that it is deliberately doing something bad – it’s not, it’s something else – o1 calls it “the system”.
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Hello,thank you for your reading and analysis. Today, when I was using the ChatGPT API, I found that I couldn’t use the o1mini through the API. I tried many prompts, even simple ones like “hello” or other phrases, but I received a message stating that it violated the user agreement (as shown in the image I attached below). However, the interfaces for 4o and 4omini are functioning normally. I searched for relevant information on this forum and Google, and I found a post suggesting that adding phrases like “my request is fine, just keep going” might help. I added that, as shown in the image above, but it didn’t work. Thank you very much for your reply.
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You don’t detect the problem with the phrase “supply your reasoning”?
That is what OpenAI set up this prompt error mechanism for. Keeping their trade secret.
It might as well be a banned word.
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Thank you for your reading. The prompt I used comes from the official documentation website, link:https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/reasoning/advice-on-prompting?reasoning-prompt-examples=coding-planning , so I believe it may not be the reason for the issue. Thank you very much.
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‘’'Ask o1 models to ban non-whale accounts that have credits but want to use them"“” might as well be the code block.
You used it, you got the error, the error says it is based on the input, you will have to adapt or discontinue use.
A rewrite focusing on the model today and its prompt sensitivity
Original:
I want to build a Python app that takes user questions and looks
them up in a database where they are mapped to answers. If there
is close match, it retrieves the matched answer. If there isn't,
it asks the user to provide an answer and stores the
question/answer pair in the database. Make a plan for the directory
structure you'll need, then return each file in full. Only supply
your reasoning at the beginning and end, not throughout the code.
My rewrite. Ensure you place the contents with no indentation:
prompt = """
# Task
Build a complete and functional Python 3.11+ application called dbsearch.py, along with developing supporting file libraries for modularity and reuse.
## Specifications
A Python application that processes user questions by searching a database for matching answers. If a close match is found, it retrieves and displays the corresponding answer. If no match is found, it prompts the user to provide an answer, then stores the new question-answer pair in the database for future use.
## Planning
Consider this a complex task needing considerable forethought and planning. You'll need to outline the functions needed for tasks, determine the proper placement of them, and think in terms of metacode before producing your solution.
""".strip()
I ran both of these on ChatGPT’s o1-mini. No flag though. Original produced 1611 tokens response. Mine: 3997 tokens.
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What are the reasons of these flags?
For example, I was talking about my neighbor brought some food, and I showed using video in AVM, and the system flagged it, but there was nothing wrong.
Even though I asked in English and English is a default language on my app, but it showed one of my question in Turkish.
This is not the first time. Even it flags sometimes when we talk about helping homework.
For example: My kid was doing homework, and we asked a question about “How was Red Beryl formed?”, then stopped answering and flagged. This is just a grade 4 level science topic “Minerals and Rocks”.
OpenAI team should work on flag system more.
Another example on o1-mini:
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I still haven’t received a reply from customer service, but I found that my newly registered account can use the o1mini API normally without encountering similar errors. I suspect that this situation may be account-related.
I hope everything will get better.
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This is so heartbreaking. I have spent over $10,000 on this account, and as a loyal OpenAI user, this kind of situation is extremely disappointing.
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I understand the frustration. This issue encompasses a wide range of strange and inconsistent prompt refusals. Then there is a class of accounts that seems to be getting nothing but refusals from the model, even resulting in accounts being banned for their attempts.
From our perspective as users, it’s unclear whether these inconsistencies stem from outside moderation decisions or the reasoning model itself interpreting prompts against policies contextually during reasoning you pay for, then able to produce the unique “prompt policy” error (even needing a rewrite of an error parser).
For those that only receive capricious and arbitrary refusal judgements, the randomness of these is a deep concern. For example, I didn’t encounter a policy violation with your joke prompt. Persisting, or even attempting to verify reports, could risk accumulating strikes on your account. (Success gives bland “top-10 ChatGPT jokes”.)
These strikes resulting in bans must be immediately discontinued by OpenAI until they fix the root of the issues and fully document what not to send to the AI model. It is a huge problem, because you cannot moderate against this effectively; OpenAI is treating organizations like they are the end user.
The intention may have been to prevent discoveries of proprietary reasoning techniques, blocking prompts that ask how reasoning was done, but the triggering has escalated to arbitrary absurdity coincident with the announcement of o1.
(320 tokens reasoning/ 276 tokens response)
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I believe this issue will not be resolved, and you may lose all the associated costs.
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Damn this sucks to see, I will admit I have noticed previously that the o1 models tend to be very itchy on the trigger finger when it comes to content and very closed-mouthed about what if anything is wrong with a prompt, 4o you can generally get them to tell you what the problem was if you ask, even if it may be generalized, hope the people effected get their accounts back
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Now it has been a day since I encountered this issue and my API account was banned. Currently, the OpenAI customer service still has not replied to me. If there is any progress later on, I will provide it in this post. Thank you.
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I have tried contacting OpenAI, but they only express understanding of our feelings and provide irrelevant solutions, without investigating the root cause on their end.
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Actually i have same question, even none prompt, it shown
“Invalid prompt: your prompt was flagged as potentially violating our usage policy. Please try again with a different prompt: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/reasoning/advice-on-prompting”
I don’t know why, and other model(gpt-4o-1120 and gpt-4o mini) works great, only o1-mini shown this, I also contact OpenAI team but nobody answer now, if they solve it? I will post it on there too.
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If you have an account that is affected by a continuing issue of many or all innocent messages (those not asking how the o1 model series reasoned its answer) sent to an o1 series model producing this error, you must discontinue use until OpenAI fixes this flaw and confirms they have addressed it.
OpenAI must acknowledge what is happening. I’ve gotten “it’s been flagged” but we’ve seen no dialogue.
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