A Thai man won $60 in the lottery (about R$300 at the exchange rate), based on numbers predicted by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot. The story gained a lot of repercussions on social media. Patthawikorn Boonin used the popular ChatGPT, an AI model trained to chat on various topics.
But, predicting the future is not part of their usual process. When someone asks ChatGPT to make predictions, it replies: “As an AI, I cannot guess lottery numbers. They are randomly generated and no one can predict the outcome with certainty.”
Gambler managed to circumvent ChatGPT limitation
According to local news agency The Thaiger, Boonin won a total of 2,000 baht (the local currency) after finding a solution to circumvent this chatbot limitation on playing the lottery. In fact, he got the software to generate four pairs of two digits – 57, 27, 29 and 99 – which Boonin played in the Thai government lottery. So number 99 was drawn, yielding a fraction of the total prize money.
The basis of a lottery game is based on randomness. If the results were easily predictable, nobody would bet on losing combinations. But, there are nuances regarding randomness that can be explored.
Algorithmic randomness, in turn, simulates random events using mathematical algorithms called pseudorandom number generators (PRNGs). Even though PRNGs elaborate numerical sequences that appear random, they are made from deterministic formulas and, therefore, are predictable.
Since PRNGs rely on initial values, AI could theoretically guess the results of these algorithms by analyzing huge amounts of generated data. By finding hidden patterns in sequences of numbers, the software can improve its model to guess the next number generated by the algorithm. This was not what happened to the Thai bettor, as ChatGPT is not yet so sophisticated as to do these calculations.
Regarding the Bitcoin Portal, an exercise was done with GPT4, questioned whether the AI would be able to guess the lottery dozens in the future. “Lottery numbers are drawn randomly and systems are designed to ensure the process is as unpredictable as possible. To predict lottery winners, an AI would need to be able to predict true randomness, which is fundamentally impossible,” replied GPT4.
