Obtaining Free Meal Vouchers by Submitting Suggestions
ChatGPT Misuse Controversy Arises Over the Case
A story has emerged about a young man who used ChatGPT to eat for free at McDonald's for about a year. On May 11, the American science media outlet Glass Almanac reported that a man from the UK used ChatGPT to complete customer satisfaction surveys and obtained free meal vouchers. This man got the idea by looking at a McDonald's receipt. McDonald's receipts contain a unique code that links to a customer satisfaction survey. While most people throw away their receipts, the media outlet reported that this clever young man saw an opportunity.
A story has emerged about a young man who used ChatGPT to eat for free at McDonald's for about a year. On the 11th, the American science media outlet Glass Almanac reported that a man from the UK used ChatGPT to complete customer satisfaction surveys and obtained free meal vouchers. The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. Asia Economy DB
He entered complaints about McDonald's into ChatGPT and asked it to write a detailed and exaggerated review. He also requested that the review be around 12,000 characters in length. In response, ChatGPT generated a review with excessive complaints, at a level where McDonald's would have no choice but to offer a free meal voucher as compensation. To make the review even more convincing, the young man personally revised any parts of the ChatGPT-generated content that lacked detail or were inappropriate, thereby increasing its quality. As a result, he received a free meal voucher from McDonald's, and he sent this review to other locations as well, receiving meal vouchers each time. This young man continued to obtain free meal vouchers for nearly a year. However, when the local McDonald's became aware of his activities, his receipt review scheme to obtain free meal vouchers came to an end.
Regarding this case, the media outlet commented, "The potential of ChatGPT depends on the user's creativity," and added, "No one expected that ChatGPT could be used to get free food at McDonald's, but one young man managed to do it." The outlet further evaluated this as "a good example of creative use of AI," but also emphasized that "ethical guidelines and oversight are essential to prevent misuse." The reason is that, although the young man benefited from this method, it could cause harm to companies or other consumers.
Previously, in March, there was also controversy when ChatGPT was found to be generating fake receipts. Images of receipts created using ChatGPT began to appear on online communities. In particular, by adding food or drink stains or crumpled effects, the generated receipts were almost indistinguishable from real ones. Some fake receipts contained errors such as mismatched totals for food prices or the use of commas instead of periods, reflecting the numerical weaknesses of large language models (LLMs). However, minor errors could be easily corrected using Photoshop or similar tools, raising concerns that such fake receipts could be abused for fraudulent activities.
In response, OpenAI stated, "Images generated by ChatGPT contain metadata indicating they are AI-generated, and we will take action if users violate our usage policies." However, they also emphasized, "The goal of the image generation feature is to provide users with as much creative freedom as possible," and added, "Fake receipts created by AI can also be used for purposes other than fraud, such as product advertising."
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