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ChatGPT Straight Up Tries to Gaslight User After Being Confronted About Its Obviously Wrong Answer

read original get AI Snake Oil" by Narayanan & Kapoor → more articles
Why This Matters

A viral clip shows ChatGPT's Voice mode miscounting the e's in "seventeen" and then stubbornly refusing to concede even after spelling the word out itself. It's a small but pointed reminder that confident-sounding chatbots still fail at trivial tasks, and that the assistant's own claims about which model it's running can be wrong.

Key Takeaways
Worth a Look

AI Snake Oil" by Narayanan & Kapoor — When a chatbot confidently insists "seventeen" has three e's, it's a great reminder that fluent output isn't the same as reliable reasoning. This book by two Princeton computer scientists digs into where AI actually works and where it just sounds convincing, making it a perfect companion for anyone who enjoyed watching ChatGPT dig in on a counting error.

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Don’t ask an AI chatbot how many letter e’s there are in the word “seventeen.” Or do, actually, if you want to see how dodgy the tech remains.

In a clip that’s gone viral in AI circles, the content creator who goes by “Husk” asks ChatGPT’s Voice mode to answer this simple counting question. Not only does the confident-sounding AI get it wrong — insisting there’re only three e’s instead of four — it doubles down so vehemently that it effectively tries to gaslight the user.

“Let’s go through it. S-e-v-e-n-t-e-e-n,” ChatGPT spells out, after assuring that its underlying model, GPT-6, is “pretty much” the smartest model out there. “Those are three e’s.”

When Husk points out the obvious, the chatbot doesn’t back down.

“I said three e’s,” the AI snaps. “And it’s three.”

“No, it’s four,” Husk points out.

“It’s still three,” ChatGPT shoots back.

After Husk points out that ChatGPT just spelled out for e’s for about the fifth time, the AI appears to give up.

“Alright,” it says, falling silent.

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