Technology
Why does the name “David Mayer” cause ChatGPT to crash? OpenAI says privacy tool is broken

Users of the conversational AI platform ChatGPT discovered an interesting phenomenon over the weekend: a preferred chatbot refuses to answer questions on “David Mayer.” Asking him to achieve this will end in a direct suspension. Conspiracy theories have emerged, but there is a more unusual reason behind this strange behavior.
Word spread quickly last weekend that the name was poison to the chatbot, with an increasing number of people trying to trick the service into merely confirming the name. No luck: any attempt to get ChatGPT to spell this particular name leads to the middle name failing and even breaking.
“I am unable to answer,” the message says, if it says anything in any respect.
But what began as a one-off curiosity quickly blossomed when people discovered that ChatGPT couldn’t name greater than just David Mayer.
The names of Brian Hood, Jonathan Turley, Jonathan Zittrain, David Faber and Guido Scorza were also found to be liable for the service outage. (No doubt more has been discovered since then, so this list is not exhaustive.)
Who are these men? And why does ChatGPT hate them a lot? OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to repeated inquiries, so we’re left to piece it together as best we will.* (See update below).
Some of those names can belong to any number of individuals. However, a possible thread of connection identified by ChatGPT users is that these individuals are public or semi-public figures who may prefer that engines like google or AI models “forget” certain information.
Brian Hood, for instance, stands out in that, assuming he’s the same guy, I wrote about him last yr. Hood, an Australian mayor, accused ChatGPT of falsely identifying him as the perpetrator of a decades-old crime that he actually reported.
Although his lawyers contacted OpenAI, no lawsuit was ever filed. Like him he told the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this yr: “Offensive material removed and version 4 released, replacing version 3.5.”

As for the most outstanding owners of the remaining names, David Faber is a longtime CNBC reporter. Jonathan Turley is a lawyer and Fox News commentator who was “encountered” in late 2023 (i.e., a false 911 call sent armed police to his home). Jonathan Zittrain is also a legal expert who has The topic of the “right to be forgotten” was discussed at length. Guido Scorza sits on the Management Board of the Italian Data Protection Authority.
It’s not exactly the same scope of labor, nevertheless it’s not a random selection either. It is possible that every of those people is someone who, for whatever reason, could have formally requested that the information relating to them on the Internet be restricted not directly.
Which brings us back to David Mayer. There is no lawyer, journalist, mayor or other outstanding person with that name that anyone can find (sorry to the many respectable David Mayers).
However, there was Professor David Mayer, who taught drama and history, specializing in the relationship between the late Victorian era and early cinema. Mayer died in the summer of 2023 at the age of 94. However, for a few years the British-American scientist faced a legal and web problem involving his name being related to a wanted criminal who used it as a pseudonym, to the point where he was unable to travel anywhere.
Mayer he continuously fought to have his name distinguished from that of the one-armed terroristregardless that he was still teaching already in the last years of his life.
So what conclusions can we draw from all this? Our guess is that the model ingested or provided a listing of individuals whose names require special treatment. Whether for legal, security, privacy or other reasons, these names are likely subject to special rules, like many other names and identities. For example, ChatGPT may change its response if it matches a name you entered on a listing of political candidates.
There are many such special rules, and every prompt undergoes various types of processing before being answered. However, these rules of conduct after rapid intervention are rarely made public, apart from political announcements akin to “the model will not predict the election results of any candidate for office.”
What probably happened was that one in all these lists, that are almost actually actively maintained or robotically updated, was in some way corrupted by buggy code or instructions that, when invoked, caused the chat agent to immediately crash. To be clear, this is just our speculation based on what we have learned, but this would not be the first time an AI has behaved strangely due to post-training cues. (Incidentally, as I used to be writing this, “David Mayer” began working again for some, while other names continued to cause crashes.)
As usual in such cases, Hanlon’s razor applies: never attribute to malice (or conspiracy) what might be adequately explained by stupidity (or syntactical error).
All this drama is a useful reminder that not only are these AI models not magical, but also they are extremely sophisticated and auto-feeding, and are actively monitored and interfered with by the firms that create them. Next time you are eager about getting facts from a chatbot, consider whether it is likely to be higher to go straight to the source.
Update: OpenAI confirmed on Tuesday that the name “David Mayer” had been flagged by internal privacy tools, saying in an announcement that “There may be cases where ChatGPT does not share certain information about people to protect their privacy.” The company didn’t provide further details about the tools or process.
Technology
Trump delays the ban

Donald Trump has signed a brand new executive order “Save Tiktok”.
Tiktok will live to see the next day – at the least for now. On April 4, President Donald Trump signed a brand new executive order delaying the ban on a preferred social application by one other 75 days. The application was to darken in the USA on April 5.
The application, belonging to the Chinese company Bytedance, is now on the second extension in the first quarter of the 12 months. In 2024, President Biden signed bilateral laws of Ban Tiktok, citing fears about national security. Congress voted in a predominant means. Although Trump has signed the executive order to “save” the application, many questioned the legality of the movement. Like many president’s actions at the starting of his term, they complain that evidently he exceeds the authority of the executive office.
Trump announced his move to Stop the ban on social truthSaying that his administration remains to be working on the contract.
“My administration worked very hard on the Tiktok saving contract, and we have made great progress,” Trump wrote on April 4. “The contract requires more work to ensure the signing of all necessary approvals, which is why I sign an executive order to continue tiktok for an additional 75 days.”
Trump quoted his newly imposed tariffs to China as a key reason for detained negotiations for the buyer.
“We hope to continue working in good faith with China, which, as I understand, are not very satisfied with our mutual tariffs – necessary for honest and balanced trade between China and the USA,” wrote Trump. “It proves that tariffs are the most powerful economic tool and very important for our national security. We do not want Tiktok to go dark. We are looking forward to cooperation with Tiktok and China to complete the contract.”
This means a second time Trump entered to delay the ban. On January 2, just a couple of days after returning to the office, he signed the first extension to stop Tiktok, utilized by over 170 million Americans available to users.
The potential sales of Tiktok draws the major attention of the principal players in the business world. According to HillMany private equity firms, the Venture Capital groups and the best technological investors have introduced offers for a preferred application.
Among the firms, apparently in the mix are Blackstone, Oracle, Amazon – led by Jeff Bezos – and the founding father of Onlyfans Tim Stokely. Interest in purchasing Tiktok has increased, how uncertainty about its future in the US is always growing.
The application, utilized by 170 million Americans, is situated at the center of ongoing political and economic negotiations between the United States and China. Along with the upcoming pressure and deadlines, the possibility of selling opened the door to the largest technological and financial names.
Technology
Doge is supposedly planning Hackathon to build a “mega api” for IRS data

The Department of Government Elon Musk (DOGE) is planning Organize Hackathon next week Focused on creating a “mega API interface”, which is able to provide access to taxpayers, according to Wired.
Wired claims that Hackathon is organized by two Doge employees within the service of the inner rule – Gavin Kliger and Sam Corcos, who’re also the final director at the extent of Healthtech startups. Corcos reportedly said to others in Doge that his goal is to build “one new API to rule them all.”
This would facilitate cloud suppliers access to IRS data, including taxpayers’ names, addresses, social insurance numbers, tax declarations and employment information, which may very well be exported to external systems. According to Wired, the vendor of external parties managed parts of the project, and Palantir “consistently” grew up as a candidate.
“Basically, they are open door controlled by Musk for the most sensitive information of all Americans without any rules that normally secure this data,” said an anonymous IRS worker said.
(Tagstranslate) dog
Technology
Automacers jump on the misfortunes of the Tesla brand with EV discounts offers

Tesla trade in the USA all the time high When some owners are disenchanted with the policy of Elon Musk, and a few just wish to avoid their automobile, which is crucial by musk haters.
Automaks throw themselves at such a possibility.
Polestar, Lucid Motors, Volvo and Ford – which has long been lasted by Tesla on EV sales – took advantage of the throw against the brand, issuing bonuses and conquest incentives, which undermine the loyalty of the buyer’s brand.
Shortly after Polestar began to supply a reduction of $ 5,000, the sales head of the manufacturer’s manufacturer Jordan Hofmann said that the bonus was already a hit.
“Some of the highest days at Polestar 3 appeared this week, and the response to our offer conquest Tesla was amazing” is LinkedIn.
Most offers don’t require the buyers to truly mention their Teslas to qualify, although Joseph Yoon, a consumer analyst at Edmund, claims that the trend actually indicates EV owners who switch because of the recent devaluation of the manufacturer’s brand.
The use of his wealth by Musk to assist select Donald Trump as office, and his subsequent takeover of the federal government by Doge led many to a colleague with a controversial billionaire. The protest movement referred to as Tesla Zabornik spread throughout the world. Meanwhile, there was a rise in the vandalism of Tesla’s property and vehicles. More violent attacks, which included arson, suffered the anger of President Trump, who swore to treat such incidents as “internal terrorism.”
Regardless of whether the owner of Tesla is on the side of the protesters or simply doesn’t want someone to spray the swastika on his automobile, Yoon said that the buyers are able to get rid of their vehicles.
“What this kind of conquest bonus programs is awaiting is that these guys intend to (trade their teslas). What if we make it a little sweeter and make sure that they come to us instead of a competitor?” Yoon said.
On the side of producers Sean Tucker, the most important editor at Kelley Blue Book, told Techcrunch that industrial economics is currently different because of the unique situation of Tesla.
“Usually, when the dealer undertakes trade or simply placed it in their own website and sell it, or in some cases they sell it to an auction company, which will sell it to another dealer. Sometimes they bear a small loss, but on the normal market they can avoid it,” said Tucker. “It really differs from Tesla, because it is so difficult to fix the price of resale of Tesla in an environment where their public image changes so quickly.”
Tucker noticed that smaller brands, similar to Polestar and Lucid, are willing to lose in trade to remove Tesla from the road and put one of their vehicles on the road.
And Yoon said that two meaningful is sensible that two EV manufacturers should direct their marketing towards their most important competition.
Early indicators show that musk political activities have a negative impact on the sale of latest cars. It is unclear whether these incentives and trade discounts will think in the EV market.
The consequences of the latest Trump automotive tariffs can moreover complicate the results, because buyers are in search of vehicles with lower costs.
“The big edge of Tesla is that its most popular vehicles are produced here and very few imported parts,” said Yoon. “Many of these new EVs have many foreign acquisition in their parts and production. So who knows how it will work out?”
Tesla alternative options
Polestar began to supply special Discount price USD 5000 For Tesla drivers who wish to rent a brand new crossover by Polestar 3 in February. This agreement, in addition to one other USD 15,000 for pure incentives of vehicles for consumers who rent, can bring Tesla owners a complete of 20,000 USD discounts for a 2025 EV model yr.
Conscious engines have also begun Offering Tesla owners as much as USD 4000 in discounts when buying Lucid Air Sedan 2025-2000 USD for getting a automobile and one other $ 2,000 in the event you replace the current Tesla. Lucid will even sweeten the contract by taking one other 1000 USD to vehicles available in the Sales Studio Location at the time of order.
Both Polestar and Lucid say that buyers must take delivery before April 30.
In mid -March, Volvo launched its own nationwide encouragement, offering to customers who currently have or lease Tesla with a 1000 USD bonus for the purchase or fully electric Volvo in 2024 or any 2025 or 2025.5 (refreshment in the middle of the yr), in the event that they are delivered before the end of April. This signifies that buyers don’t even need to buy EV to make use of this contract. The only model 2025.5, which Volvo currently has, is the hybrid SUV XC90 Plug-in.
Ford has just closed a $ 1000 discount for Tesla owners who switch to the latest Mustang Mach-E or F-150 lightning. The discount was available to buyers who took the delivery before April 2.
Ford spokesman told Techcrunch that the manufacturer has nothing to divide into ongoing or future encouragement.
(Tagstranslate) Elon Musk (T) EV (T) Lucid (T) Tesla (T) Volvo (T) Polestar
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