Last weekend, the name "David Mayer" suddenly appeared on social media, but there was no related response from the popular chatbot ChatGPT, sparking widespread discussion and speculation. Users attempted multiple times to get ChatGPT to output the name "David Mayer," but were unsuccessful. The chatbot's responses were either "It seems there is a problem" or "I cannot respond," and it even stopped when mentioning "David."
This peculiar phenomenon led many to speculate about who "David Mayer" is, with some suggesting that he may have requested to have his name removed from ChatGPT's outputs. In response, an OpenAI spokesperson stated that the issue stemmed from a system malfunction, explaining that a tool had incorrectly flagged this name as content that should not appear. They emphasized that the name was not banned, but rather a temporary technical issue, and OpenAI is working to fix it.
There are speculations that "David Mayer" might be related to the famous Rothschild family, but David Mayer himself denied this and stated that he has no connection to ChatGPT. He pointed out that much of the speculation surrounding his name originates from conspiracy theories. Additionally, the malfunction incident is unrelated to the late scholar David Mayer, who was placed on the U.S. security list due to his name being the same as that of a Chechen militant.
Furthermore, some believe that this malfunction may be related to the GDPR privacy regulations in the EU and the UK. According to OpenAI's European privacy policy, users have the right to request the deletion of personal data, known as the "right to be forgotten." Although OpenAI has not commented further on whether the "David Mayer" issue is related to this, the incident has sparked discussions about privacy protection.
Now, OpenAI has resolved the "David Mayer" issue, and ChatGPT is able to respond normally to queries related to that name. However, some other names mentioned on social media still trigger the response "It seems there is a problem." Helena Brown, a partner and data protection expert at the law firm Addleshaw Goddard, stated that requests regarding the "right to be forgotten" apply to any entity or individual processing that person's data, but completely deleting all information that can identify a specific individual is relatively complex for AI tools.
Key Points:
🌐 ChatGPT blocked the name "David Mayer" due to a system malfunction, sparking heated discussions on social media.
🔧 OpenAI stated that the issue stemmed from a technical fault and is working to resolve it.
📜 Legal experts point out that privacy protection and the "right to be forgotten" face challenges in AI tools.
