A mystery gripped the internet over the weekend: ChatGPT users discovered that, for some unknown reason, the famous chatbot refused to answer questions about a certain “David Mayer” or to pronounce this name. The AI freezes and the message “I’m unable to produce a response” appears on the screen. Arousing the curiosity of Internet users, they multiplied stratagems to circumvent the blockage by encouraging the chatbot to reveal this name, whose identity they sought to know. The latter can be associated with the British adventurer and environmentalist David Mayer de Rothschild, heir to the famous family, but also with the American director David Delaney Mayer or even with a historian.
The most diverse hypotheses have been put forward to try to understand the phenomenon. The malfunction could be linked to a bug or filters preventing the processing of certain names. If the name David Mayer first aroused the attention of Internet users and now seems to no longer produce blocking, other names have been added to the list. Thus, Brian Hood, Jonathan Turley, Jonathan Zittrain, David Faber and Guido Scorza produce the same effects, reports X network user Justine Moore. She specifies that the last surname refers to an Italian lawyer who made public the filing of a request for the right to be forgotten under the General Data Protection Regulation.
The other names correspond to public or semi-public figures who have filed a complaint against OpenAI or who have requested the right to be forgotten. For example, Brian Hood, an Australian mayor, was falsely accused by ChatGPT of being imprisoned in connection with an international corruption scandal.
As for “David Mayer,” that name might have been placed on an OpenAI blacklist, either accidentally or intentionally, at the request of one of the people with that name. Indeed, the American historian David Mayer had been placed on a blacklist by the American intelligence services, after being confused with a Chechen terrorist operating under this pseudonym.
