ChatGPT is baffling users by refusing to say certain people’s names

ChatGPT has mysteriously stopped responding to prompts containing certain specific names, raising questions about content filtering and transparency in AI systems.

Core issue identification: ChatGPT, OpenAI’s popular language model, consistently returns error messages when asked to process or generate responses containing specific full names, including “David Mayer” and several others.

• Users across social media platforms have documented the AI’s inability to combine certain first and last names, even though it can say the names individually
• The restriction appears to affect multiple versions of ChatGPT, including GPT-4
• Other AI chatbots like Google Gemini and Grok have no difficulty processing these same names

Technical investigation: Developer analysis suggests the restriction may be related to ChatGPT’s front-end implementation rather than core functionality limitations.

• Peter Cooper, a CooperPress developer, noted that GPT-4 via API has no issues processing these names
• The restriction appears to be specific to ChatGPT’s consumer-facing interface
• Users have attempted various workarounds, including code-based approaches, to bypass the restriction

Affected names and patterns: Several prominent individuals’ names trigger ChatGPT’s error response mechanism.

• The list includes Brian Hood, Jonathan Turley, Jonathan Zittrain, David Faber, and Guido Scorza
• Many of these individuals are public figures, including professors, journalists, and legal professionals
• ChatGPT consistently refuses to explain why these specific names trigger restrictions

Potential explanation: Brave’s AI assistant Leo suggests the restriction may be linked to OpenAI’s privacy policies.

• The limitation could stem from OpenAI’s policy against generating personal data without consent
• One specific case involves a potential connection to a Chechen militant who used “David Mayer” as an alias
• The broad range of affected names suggests a systematic approach to privacy protection

Looking ahead: Privacy versus transparency: The unexplained name restrictions highlight the complex balance between protecting individual privacy and maintaining transparency in AI systems, while raising questions about the criteria used to determine which names get restricted and whether such broad restrictions serve their intended purpose effectively.