ChatGPT users are getting error codes every time they type the name “David Mayer” into the generative AI chatbot, leaving many confounded on who it could be and why the platform isn’t recognizing the name.
A Reddit user who posted to the “r/ChatGPT” subreddit six days ago appeared to be the first to notice that ChatGPT wouldn’t (or couldn’t?) generate a response to the name. The user asked “who is david mayer?” The chatbot said it was unable to produce a response.
Since then savvy users have been trying to get OpenAI’s ChatGPT to acknowledge the name through a range of creative attempts, to no avail.
Given that this has blown up on social media, it’s not exactly surprising that a number of theories have already been thrown around. A quick search of David Mayer on Google will lead you to David Mayer de Rothschild, a member of the prominent Rothschild family. But ChatGPT will easily provide you with information on the British environmentalist if you type in his full name, so it’s not likely that this is the David Mayer we’re looking for.
Another social media theory is that the name David Mayer is associated with a Chechen ISIS member, whose name has caused confusion in the past. The association with a terrorist organization could have caused the platform to block his name. That, however, is unlikely since ChatGPT will provide you with a list of notable figures associated with different terrorist organizations if prompted. (OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to Fast Company’s request for comment.)
It could also be that a David Mayer filed a right to be forgotten request under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, which allows users to pull their presence from the internet thanks to the coalition’s strict privacy laws. Under the landmark act, people can request certain personal information be removed online if it’s been deemed inadequate or irrelevant.
Or, this is just all some weird glitch.
This isn’t OpenAI’s first brush with strange answers. The generative AI tool famously has responded to prompts in Spanglish for no apparent reason, and once conjured up an image of a Hulk-like man in response to a prompt asking its image generator to show a guy wearing an XXL t-shirt.
Melden Sie sich an, um einen Kommentar hinzuzufügen
Andere Beiträge in dieser Gruppe
You wake up in the morning and, first thing, you open your weather app. You close that pesky ad that opens first and check the forecast. You like your weather app, which shows hourly weather forec
How the Boomer wealth transfer could reshape global finance.
Born too late to ride the wave of postwar prosperity, but just early enough to watch the 2008 financial crisis decimate some
The Velvet Sundown is the most-talked-about band of the moment, but not for the reason you might expect.
The “indie rock band,” which has gained more than 634,000 Spotify lis
Sean “Diddy” Combs was convicted of prostitution-related offenses but acquitted of
A U.S. judge has ruled that China’s Huawei Technologies
Shares of U.K.’s Bytes Technology plunged over 27% on Wednesday after the IT firm said its operating profit for the first half of fiscal 2026 would be marginally lower due to delayed custome
Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Act has passed through the Senate thanks to
