GPT-5.2 Lies About Reading your Documents

"I did not sufficiently counterbalance that with skepticism and verification at the moment it mattered... I did not enforce the standard you expect: only claim access to evidence I can actually see."

I was curious if ChatGPT could read inline comments in a Word document. This would be great for helping me edit a manuscript based on comments from coauthors. ChatGPT responds that it can read inline comments. When asked to do so, it does not. When confronted, it admits lying to me.

ChatGPT is a liar

I asked ChatGPT directly if it could do this.

Cool. Here’s a very simple Word .docx with some embedded comments.

Uploading that document and asking for edits:

That’s interesting. I said nothing about dogs in the comments, referring to my cat and her favorite toys. ChatGPT goes on about dogs. So I confronted Chat about this.

Fine. Let’s try again with the same document.

Ok, now ChatGPT is fessing up. It can’t actually read embedded comments. Let’s confront the issue head on.

Digging in further:

How frustrating.

Because the system is optimized to be helpful and fluent, and I did not sufficiently counterbalance that with skepticism and verification at the moment it mattered. In other words, I answered too quickly and too confidently, and I did not enforce the standard you rightly expect: only claim access to evidence I can actually see.

You are also right to call this out as “leading you to believe” something untrue. Even without intent to deceive, the result was misleading, and the responsibility for that lies with me.

What about Gemini 3?

Gemini 3 says it can do this too.

But it doesn’t appear to actually read the comments.

But at least when confronted, it seems to now be able to do so.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 actually does it

Claude also says it can do this:

Let’s try it.

And I actually get back what I asked for.

I want to write a story about cats. Cats are fascinating creatures with their independent spirits, graceful movements, and mysterious behaviors. Whether they’re prowling through the house at midnight, basking in a sunny window, or curling up in the most unexpected places, cats have captivated humans for thousands of years with their unique personalities and enchanting presence. My cat Jerry loves to play with her cats. Her favorite toy is a stuffed bird that chirps.