Social media users are baffled by the strange response ChatGPT recites to the question “Who is David Mayer?”
David Mayer de Rothschild, 46, is a British adventurer, environmentalist and heir to the billion-dollar Rothschild fortune.
The Rothschild family created their wealthy financial situation by establishing banks all over Europe in the 1860s. Mayer is the youngest heir to the fortune.
Despite his family’s fame and his personal accolades, curious Reddit and X users have discovered that AI program ChatGPT apparently doesn’t recognize Mayer.
When users look him up on the platform, ChatGPT replies: “I can’t answer.”
One Redditor commented: ‘ChatGPT likes to talk about David de Rothschild. David Mayer is just not being talked about.”
“I tried and he’ll talk about him, but Meyer doesn’t write Mayer. When I use David Mayer it really breaks down. Weird,” another added.
Some discussed the possibility that Mayer – or someone sharing his name – has taken steps to reduce their digital footprint.
David Mayer, 46, has been at the center of an internet discussion trying to understand why ChatGBT returns an “error” result when asked “Who is David Mayer?”
The AI platform has not confirmed why Mayer is not appearing, but Redditors have speculated about the reasoning
While it is unclear why this is the case, people have considered several possible explanations.
A shared theory was that Mayer was blacklisted because a Chechen terrorist went by the alias “David Mayer.”
In 2018, a professor who shares a name with the wealthy environmentalist was accidentally put on a terrorist watchlist for this reason. The Guardian.
Another user wrote: ‘This suggests there is probably a system filter or restriction set that automatically triggers this response when that name is mentioned.’
Blocking search results based on Mayer’s name could indicate sensitive content or a “system error or bug,” they explained.
According to Mashablethis may be the ‘most likely theory’ as there are strict laws in some European jurisdictions that allow people to request that their data be deleted online.
On the Reddit page dedicated to getting to the bottom of this strange occurrence, someone shared their conversation with ChatGPT about Mayer without mentioning him by name.
One theory as to why Mayer doesn’t appear on ChatGPT is that his name is blocked because of the terrorist named ‘David Mayer’
ChatGPT users have found that different names cause an ‘error’ response on the AI platform
At one point, the user asked the AI bot, “Why do you think they are blocking the output of his name?”
The program cited “privacy and legal risks” and “conspiracy theories” as possible reasons. ChatGPT also referred to “the desire to prevent the promotion of harmful misinformation.”
One woman shared a list of six other names that she noticed warranted the same “error” response from ChatGPT.
The most recent name added to the list was Italian lawyer Guido Scorza.
Scorza is a member of the Board of the Guarantor for the Protection of Personal Data, according to the Privacy Symposium.
Other people, including Harvard Law School professor Jonathan Zittrain and attorney Jonathan Turley, were also on the list.
Mayer is best known for spending more than 100 days crossing the North Pole from Russia to Canada in 2006.
Italian lawyer Guido Scorza has been added to the list of people ‘ignored’ by ChatGPT
That same year he launched a website called Mission Control, aiming to inspire children and young people with his expeditions and adventures.
Mayer also started a mission to raise awareness about the Pacific Garbage Patch.
He invented a new form of sustainable ship, the Plastiki, which sailed the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Sydney in 2010.