{"id":12165,"date":"2025-06-08T18:23:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T18:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/?p=12165"},"modified":"2025-06-08T18:23:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T18:23:47","slug":"did-chatgpt-lie-to-sky-news-sam-coates-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2025\/06\/08\/did-chatgpt-lie-to-sky-news-sam-coates-no\/","title":{"rendered":"Did ChatGPT lie to Sky News\u2019 Sam Coates? No."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='e-content'><span hidden class=\"__iawmlf-post-loop-links\" data-iawmlf-links=\"[{&quot;id&quot;:740,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/news.sky.com\\\/video\\\/did-chatgpt-lie-to-sam-coates-about-transcript-for-podcast-13380234&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20250718150032\\\/https:\\\/\\\/news.sky.com\\\/video\\\/did-chatgpt-lie-to-sam-coates-about-transcript-for-podcast-13380234&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-03 20:35:24&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-09 12:01:59&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-13 05:10:43&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-19 19:50:27&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-24 10:59:53&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-28 07:54:33&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-05 10:19:15&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-08 19:32:40&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-12 23:35:04&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-18 11:33:00&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-23 07:08:10&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-28 20:48:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-02 08:45:28&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 04:00:03&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-12 19:38:50&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-17 22:13:22&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-23 01:34:52&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-26 03:40:09&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-29 09:05:25&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-03 16:13:06&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-07 07:42:40&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-10 21:16:21&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-14 03:27:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-17 05:53:09&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-20 07:56:46&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-23 22:49:36&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-27 01:24:17&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-30 19:16:51&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-03 10:18:28&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-07 07:53:52&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-10 19:53:28&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-15 09:50:10&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-18 11:47:52&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403}],&quot;broken&quot;:true,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-18 11:47:52&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]\"><\/span>\n<p>On Saturday a friend shared <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/video\/did-chatgpt-lie-to-sam-coates-about-transcript-for-podcast-13380234\" title=\"Sky News: Did ChatGPT lie to Sam Coates about transcript for podcast?\">this video<\/a> with me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7fej5XgfBYQ?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-GB&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I love that this was broadcast on Sky News for two reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It reinforces that people should not trust the output of the \u2018AI\u2019 systems that we are using. Having such a stark example of this on a mainstream TV channel that will be picked up and shared by so many people is excellent.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It is a fantastic, citable example of a fundamental misread of what this technology is. ChatGPT generated false statements, but it <em>didn\u2019t<\/em> lie. It cannot. It isn\u2019t a being. It is a non-deterministic tool that generates what the probable text output is based on its training data, and the combination of the user\u2019s prompt and the system prompt that was submitted to it.<br><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>My guess is that as Sam Coates has been uploading transcripts of his previous podcast episodes and asking questions about them over a period of time, the chat history and context led ChatGPT\u2019s statistical generation process to produce what it calculated to be the most likely response to the prompt \u2014 one that included a made-up reference to today\u2019s episode, despite it not having been uploaded yet. It was incorrect information, but it was a plausible response to his prompt of \u201cwhat date transcripts do you have access to\u201d. It wasn\u2019t going back and searching a database of previously submitted transcripts. It just doesn\u2019t work like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This isn\u2019t to take away from the usefulness of ChatGPT and other tools like it. I use generative AI all the time in a variety of ways, such as to proofread my writing. But the way in which we anthropomorphise these computer programs and words we use to describe what they do \u2014 learn, know, think, reason, understand, lie \u2014 make us walk into the trap of assuming that there is somehow a being, a person, on the other side of the chat box. There isn\u2019t. <a href=\"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2023\/09\/04\/when-good-is-the-enemy-of-the-perfect\/\" title=\"Andrew Doran: When good is the enemy of the perfect\">This trap is only going to get worse the better these systems get<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<a href=\"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2025\/06\/08\/did-chatgpt-lie-to-sky-news-sam-coates-no\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permalink to Did ChatGPT lie to Sky News\u2019 Sam Coates? No.\"><div class='e-content p-summary'>On Saturday a friend shared this video with me: I love that this was broadcast on Sky News for two reasons: My guess is that as Sam Coates has been uploading transcripts of his previous podcast episodes and asking questions about them over a period of time, the chat history and context led ChatGPT\u2019s statistical [&hellip;]<\/div>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"category-technology","8":"h-entry","10":"hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2945,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2015\/11\/25\/2945\/","url_meta":{"origin":12165,"position":0},"title":"Sky 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