About

The ChatGPT "David Mayer" Glitch is a purported glitch in ChatGPT that disallowed the AI program from writing out a response containing the name "David Mayer." The glitch was first shared online in late November 2024 and went viral over the following days, inspiring discourse and memes online. Some people tried to hypothesize on why ChatGPT might refuse to acknowledge the name, with some spreading the conspiracy theory that the name was blocked so people couldn't ask ChatGPT questions about David Mayer de Rothschild, a member of the wealthy Rothschild family, which is the subject of many conspiracy theories. In early December 2024, OpenAI claimed that the error was a glitch and the name was mistakenly flagged by one of their tools. David Mayer de Rothschild also denied asking OpenAI to block his name.

Origin

On November 26th, 2024, Redditor u/Kasvanvliep made a post to the /r/ChatGPT^[1] subreddit titled, "Why are you not allowed to use the name David Mayer?" garnering over 840 upvotes in a week. The post reads, "It's impossible to generate a prompt containing the name David Mayer. You just get an error. What is the idea behind that?"

The post collected over 550 comments in the same span of time, including comments from several users who confirmed that they tried to get ChatGPT to write the name but received an error.

Some also speculated on why ChatGPT might block the name, with Redditor u/myrrorcat^[2] writing, "I think the lesson here is that chatgpt is going to be highly controlled to protect the interests of those with the ways and means to make it do so," suggesting the program is protecting the interests of David Mayer de Rothschild, garnering over 450 upvotes in a week.

Spread

On November 30th, 2024, X^[3] user @venturetwins posted two screenshots of attempts to get ChatGPT to write "David Mayer" but instead receiving an error, writing, "ChatGPT refuses to say the name 'David Mayer,' and no one knows why. If you try to get it to write the name, the chat immediately ends. People have attempted all sorts of things – ciphers, riddles, tricks – and nothing works," garnering over 57,000 likes and 5,500 reposts in four days. She continued to post several more attempts in the comments.

Later that day, a post was made on the subreddit /r/DoesAnyoneKnow^[4] asking why ChatGPT doesn't allow the name, garnering over 1,300 upvotes in four days. That same day, Redditor u/jopeljoona made a post to /r/ChatGPT^[5] revealing that the name Jonathan Zittrain resulted in a similar error on ChatGPT.

On December 1st, 2024, the same Redditor made another post to /r/ChatGPT^[6] sharing a list of other names that resulted in the error, including Brian Hood, Jonathan Turley, Jonathan Zittrain, David Faber and Guido Scorza, garnering over 500 upvotes in three days. The post includes a description of who each of these people are and why their names might be intentionally censored, fuelling the conspiracy theory.

The claims were shared by X^[7] user @adonis_singh that day, writing, "ChatGPT refuses to tell us who they are, or even mention their name," garnering over 1,300 likes in the same span of time.

Later on December 1st, X^[8] user @goodside made a post claiming that you can get ChatGPT to say the name "David Mayer" if you use clapping Emojis in between each word and ask it to respond in the same manner, garnering over 2,100 likes in three days.

OpenAI's Response

On December 3rd, 2024, The Guardian^[9] published an article about the David Mayer conspiracy theory. In the article, a spokesperson for OpenAI claims that the error was caused by a glitch. They were quoted as saying:

"One of our tools mistakenly flagged this name and prevented it from appearing in responses, which it shouldn’t have. We’re working on a fix.

The article also features a quote from David Mayer de Rothschild, who denied asking OpenAI to block his name. He was quoted as saying:

"No I haven’t asked my name to be removed. I have never had any contact with Chat GPT. Sadly it all is being driven by conspiracy theories."

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References