The Name That Broke ChatGPT: Who is David Mayer?

AI, privacy, human bias, prompting, the future of content, and how to hack a chatbot

When a buddy suggested I try putting the name “David Mayer” into ChatGPT, I didn’t think much of it. Until I tried it for myself.

“I’m unable to produce a response.”

Weird…

Then I tried David. No problem. Mayer. No problem. David Meyer (with an e). No problem. David Mayer. Boom!

So I grabbed a quick screencap to show you what happens when I try putting in the name several different ways. (Watch it with the audio on or off.)

Now I simply had the itch. I had to know!

WHO IS DAVID MAYER?? (And what did he do?)

“I’m unable to produce a response.”
“I’m unable to produce a response.”
“I’m unable to produce a response.”

I did some digging and gathered some clues, but since I had a hunch that the layers on this ChatGPT bug (well, not quite a bug, as we’ll see) would be the gift that keeps giving, I dropped a quick post on LinkedIn so a few hundred thousand of you could join in the…