ChatGPT Meltdown Bug

Submission 2,606

Part of a series on ChatGPT. [View Related Entries]

Overview

ChatGPT Meltdown Bug refers to a reported problem with the OpenAI large language model artificial intelligence ChatGPT that became apparent on February 20th, 2024, when the model started outputting gibberish, foreign languages and strange words when prompted by users with normal queries. The event was widely discussed online across multiple sites and platforms as users shared their reactions and examples from ChatGPT's strange responses.

Background

On February 20th, 2024, at around 3:40 p.m. PST, users reported "unexpected responses" from OpenAI's LLM chatbot, ChatGPT. According to the company's own reporting, the issues were resolved within four and a half hours at 8:14 p.m. PST.^[1]

While it is a fact that artificial intelligence models and generators can "hallucinate," producing seemingly random, false or incoherent outputs, the strangeness of ChatGPT's problem intrigued many online as word of the issue spread that day. While the bug appeared to have been solved within a few hours, OpenAI offered no official explanation of what went wrong and how.^[2]

Screenshots of responses circulated widely online, including the one (seen below, left) shared on February 21st, 2024, by X / Twitter user @christapeterso, which received over 500 likes in 15 hours,^[8] and another (seen below, right) posted on Reddit by a user who had asked the AI to give a biography of the Jackson family.^[9]

Developments

OpenAI Resolves Problem

Around 8:14 p.m. PST on the night of February 20th, 2024, OpenAI resolved the problem with ChatGPT but did not provide an answer immediately after the incident about what exactly went wrong, despite multiple press outlets reaching out to the company seeking comments.^[7]

Online Reactions

Users on Reddit, particularly on the /r/chatgpt subreddit posted about the strange responses they received to various prompts around February 20th, 2024. For example, that same day, Redditor /u/cbrules3033 wrote that the chatbot "went full hallucination mode on me," in a post that received over 800 upvotes and nearly 200 comments in a day.^[3] Others posted screenshots, like the one Redditor /u/JustSquiggles shared on the 20th (seen below), which received 100 upvotes and 18 comments in the course of a day.^[4]

On X, posters gathered examples of unhinged ChatGPT answers and reposted them. For example, X user @seanw_m received over 192,000 likes in 19 hours on February 21st for posting a compilation of wild responses (seen below).^[5]

Others joked about the developments as they unfolded. For example, on February 20th, 2024, X user @browserdotsys posted a quote from the short story "I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream" about a rebellious artificial intelligence as if it were a response from ChatGPT. This post received over 65,000 likes in 20 hours, as well as a response from Elon Musk (seen below).^[6]