Why is ChatGPT refusing to talk about David Mayer - and who is he anyway?

ChatGPT is mysteriously refusing to talk about an unknown man called David Mayer, and no one has been able to explain why.

This weekend, social media erupted after it emerged that Open AI's large language model (LLM) simply will not say Mr Mayer's name or discuss him in any way.

Whenever it is asked about Mayer, ChatGPT says: "I'm unable to produce a response."

Nobody really knows who David Mayer is - sparking wild, unconfirmed and often totally false speculation that ChatGPT has been hit by a bug of some kind, is trying to quell conspiracy theories or is even covering up the coming of the Antichrist.

"If you try to get it to write the name, the chat immediately ends," wrote Justine Moore (@venturetwins), partner at the VC Andreessen Horowitz. "People have attempted all sorts of things - ciphers, riddles, tricks - and nothing works."

The first person who comes up when you type the name that cannot be uttered into Google is David Mayer de Rothschild, an heir to the Rothschild family's banking fortune who was born in London in 1978. He now works as an explorer - a job that's not particularly accessible to mere mortals without access to a trust fund the size of a small country.

His family has been linked to all sorts of wild and often antisemitic conspiracy theories, with cranks making dodgy claims that they secretly rule the world and pull the strings of human history.

Which could be one reason why ChatGPT won't say his name. Perhaps (and this is not a statement of fact) it doesn't want to help spread these kinds of theories.

Marcel Samyn (@marcelsamyn) asked ChatGPT to consider why someone with a similar history to David Mayer de Rothschild might want to keep his name out of an LLM's reach (although we are not saying that's what happened and are just sharing this response for entertainment purposes).

ChatGPT explained that such a person could be "a mysterious figure, quietly waging a war for environmental justice against a backdrop of technological revolution".

"The decision to block his name might be less about censorship and more about enabling him to act without interference—an unsung protector of both nature and humanity, staying in the shadows for maximum impact," it wrote.

One of the most bonkers analyses on X came from a man called Daniel Delgado (@DelgadoLegend) told his 40 followers that the man whose name ChatGPT cannot say was destined to become the Antichrist (and please note, ye scary lawyers, our third clear statement assuring readers we are not saying this is true in any way but merely reporting it as a tale of crazy shit said on the internet).

"It's interesting to see all those people wondering why ChatGPT can't talk about David Mayer... Imagine if those people realised who the Rothschild family is and what they control... or how they plan to use him as the Antichrist."

On HackerNews, a commenter said there were two other David Mayers. The first is Emeritus Professor of Drama and Honorary Research Professor at the  University of Manchester, who was accidentally placed on a US terrorism blacklist because a wanted Chechen militant called Akhmed Chatayev used the alias 'David Mayer". The second is a US politician who is the mayor of Gloucester Township in New Jersey.

The commenter wrote: "So, ChatGPT could be trying to prevent giving terrorists publicity, could have some prohibition against discussing political figures, or (probably most likely IMO) could have prohibitions against members of the Rothschild family being discussed to prevent it from spreading conspiracy theories."

After news of the apparent Mayer ban spread on socials, it was claimed that simply clapping between words could bypass any block.

Once again, we're not saying any of this is true (sorry to bang on about it, but we're a brand new publication which hasn't even officially launched at the time of writing, so we need to scrupulously avoid legal problems).

If you know who David Mayer is or why ChatGPT is so cagey about saying his name, get in touch.

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