Users of ChatGPT have found that the AI chatbot refuses to answer questions if asked about the name David Mayer.
Despite many users trying to trick the OpenAI chatbot into merely acknowledging the name, no such luck has occurred.
Asking it to do so causes it to freeze and cut off mid-sentence only to be left with the message: “I’m unable to produce a response.”
So what's going on here?
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For starters, no clear connection has been found to any particularly notable figure with the name David Mayer - except one.
There was a Professor David Mayer, a British-American academic specialising in Victorian history and early cinema, who passed away in 2023 at the age of 94.
For years, Mayer fought to separate his identity from a wanted criminal who had used his name as an alias.
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Though Mayer was able to continue teaching, he was unable to travel anywhere.
But what's interesting is that it isn’t just David Mayer who ChatGPT can’t name.
Other names like Brian Hood, Jonathan Turley, Jonathan Zittrain, David Faber, and Guido Scorza also cause the system to fail.
OpenAI hasn’t provided an explanation, so users have pieced together their own theories - and conspiracies.
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One idea is that these names belong to individuals who have requested some level of privacy from search engines or AI systems.
It’s not unheard of for people - especially public figures - to pursue control over how their names are handled online.
Brian Hood could refer to an Australian mayor who accused ChatGPT of falsely naming him as the perpetrator of a decades-old crime he had actually just reported.
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Although no lawsuit followed, OpenAI removed the offending material after his lawyers reached out.
“The offending material was removed and they released version 4, replacing version 3.5,” Hood stated earlier this year.
Other names on the list also connect to figures involved in legal or privacy battles.
David Faber is a longtime reporter at CNBC and Jonathan Turley is a lawyer and Fox News commentator who was 'swatted' (a fake emergency call sent police to his home) in late 2023.
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Meanwhile, Jonathan Zittrain is a legal expert who has spoken widely about the 'right to be forgotten.' And Guido Scorza serves on Italy’s Data Protection Authority.
None of them are in the same line of work but each has some plausible reason for wanting control over their digital footprint - whether it be legal, privacy or safety reasons.