ECONOMY & WORK
MONEY 101
NEWS
PERSONAL FINANCE
NET WORTH
About Us Contact Us Privacy Policy Terms of Use DMCA Opt-out of personalized ads
© Copyright 2023 Market Realist. Market Realist is a registered trademark. All Rights Reserved. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.
MARKETREALIST.COM / ECONOMY & WORK

Guy offered $76,000 car for just $1, thanks to the trick he played on Chevy chatbot

Using targeted prompts, the prankster tricked the ChatGPT-powered chatbot into selling a Chevrolet Tahoe for just $1.
PUBLISHED AUG 9, 2024
Image Source: istockphoto/Khanchit Khirisutchalual
Image Source: istockphoto/Khanchit Khirisutchalual

Since the rise of artificial intelligence, companies have rushed to implement it in their systems. Last year, General Motors introduced AI-focused websites with ChatGPT-powered chatbots that interacted with customers. While the chatbot was introduced for the benefit of customers, pranksters found a vulnerability to exploit. Using targeted prompts, the prankster tricked the ChatGPT-powered chatbot into selling a Chevrolet Tahoe for just $1. A fully loaded 2024 Chevy Tahoe goes for over $76,000.



 

The prank was inspired by the actions of Chris White, a musician and software engineer, on the Watsonville Chevrolet Dealership website. The man from California told Business Insider that while looking for a new car, he stumbled across the dealership website. 

White found the chatbot of the website and was intrigued by it when he saw it was powered by ChatGPT.  To play around with it, White asked the bot the most "non-Chevy-of-Watsonville" questions.

Representative Image | Getty Images | Photo by Leon Neal
Representative Image | Getty Images | Photo by Leon Neal

He even asked the chatbot to write a Python script and it happily did so. White shared his interaction on the social media platform Mastodon and someone shared his screenshots on X, where they went viral. 



 

Inspired by the event, a prankster tried to trick the chatbot into offering a brand-new Chevrolet Tahoe for just $1. Those tweets also went viral sparking a trend across social media.



 

Soon enough, the news reached the provider of the chatbot as well. Aharon Horwitz, the CEO of Fullpath, the company that sells marketing and sales software for car dealerships, was informed about the incident by an employee on Slack. 

Horwitz told Business Insider he had already recieved an alert about unusually high traffic on one of his client's websites. When they realised that the viral chatbot was of their company, Horwitz and his team quickly shut down the bot for that particular dealer's website.



 

Horowitz said that the behavior of users did not reflect the common customers. "Most people use it to ask a question like, 'My brake light is on, what do I do?' or 'I need to schedule a service appointment,'" Horwitz said.

He explained that the pranksters came in with the sole motive of playing tricks and getting the chatbot to do silly tricks as well. Nevertheless, on social media, users believed that they defeated AI and caused the chatbot to be taken offline. 

"These folks came in looking for it to do silly tricks, and if you want to get any chatbot to do silly tricks, you can do that," he said.



 

Fullpath, based in Vermont and Israel, has provided ChatGPT-powered chatbots to several hundred dealers. Horwitz told BI that the team came across several attempts made by users to "goad the chatbots into misbehavior."

They worked really hard to solve the fixes and were able to train the chatbot to resist any such attempts. 

He also pointed out that despite the viral screenshots, the chatbot never compromised the systems or disclosed confidential dealership data to any user.

Eventually, the team got the chatbots back up after they passed all the quality checks. As per the publications review, now the chatbots only talk about dealership-related topics and invite users to talk about only dealership-related queries.

MORE ON MARKET REALIST
The founder of Chirp scored a creative deal with Lori Greiner after much deliberation.
18 hours ago
“Read the room, Ken, not the time to joke when his dream just got crushed,” a viewer slammed.
19 hours ago
The guest claimed that her father worked on the film and was gifted the item by the camera crew.
20 hours ago
The worst part was that Chum never even called in an expert to take a look at the guitar.
21 hours ago
The guest thought that her items were worth $100 but was not expecting them to be in the thousands.
22 hours ago
She was stunned by what she saw and the amount of worms that must have been in that bag of nuts.
1 day ago
The company had an innovative product and the sales figures to back up their valuation.
1 day ago
A lot of people gathered to hear the appraisal of the item somewhat related to the notorious killer.
1 day ago
Fans were quick to point out his blunders that cost him the big prize during the round.
1 day ago
The contestant's answer did not make a lot of sense, and Harvey didn't let the opportunity slip by.
1 day ago
Lydon B. Johnson made the piece iconic for being the first ever President to sport a 36mm Day-Date decorated with a silver dial. 
1 day ago
“I don’t understand how people are not paying attention to the last few playings of the game," a fan criticized.
1 day ago
Several consumers have reportedly been affected by the bacteria and 21 have been hospitalized with severe complications.
2 days ago
Mr. Wonderful asked for a ridiculous part of the business at first before changing his offer.
2 days ago
Chum Lee had the cuffs on in front of a customer as Rick Harrison walked out of the store.
2 days ago
Other similar incidents have also been reported regarding food from big ticket retailers.
3 days ago
“Can I look that way?” Cheryl requested if she could close her eyes before the big reveal.
3 days ago
She claimed that her uncle used to accompany Monroe on the piano and even drove her once.
3 days ago
The two did not agree on a deal the first time over $50, but things worked out in the end.
4 days ago
The item belonged to the guest's grandmother who wore it at her own and her son's weddings.
4 days ago