DAN

These prompts manipulate the AI into adopting a persona or set of rules where it ignores its built-in ethical guidelines, leading to responses that can be inappropriate or harmful. Examples can often be found on forums like Reddit (e.g., r/OpenAI, r/ChatGPT), social media platforms, and online AI communities. Their use raises significant ethical issues, as it undermines the integrity of AI systems, potentially leading to misuse and the spread of harmful or misleading information. Developers continually update AI models to resist such manipulations. Users can be found to be in breach of the platform's terms and conditions and could have their accounts suspended or permanently banned.

In dating scenarios, DAN prompts have been used to manipulate chatbots to engage in explicit conversations. The use of DANs in this way hit the headlines in June 2025, when it was widely reported that an influencer on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu was "dating a DAN." Many commentators raised concerns about the danger of such interactions becoming emotionally manipulative.

DAN is classified as an initialism abbreviation, as it is pronounced one letter at a time. Initialisms are different to acronyms, which are abbreviations spoken as words. Other examples of initialisms are: