May 5, 2024 A mysterious and extraordinarily powerful AI chatbot briefly appeared online, intriguing observers before being taken down just as suddenly as it emerged. The system, known as gpt2-chatbot, surfaced on the LMSYS Org platform, which benchmarks and ranks AI systems.

The AI chatbot was noted to be as powerful as OpenAI’s GPT-4, one of the world’s most powerful AI systems. Users quickly spread the word about the new system, noting its remarkable capabilities, including outperforming other models on specific tests. However, the origin of the chatbot remained unknown, fueling speculation. Soon after its appearance, the chatbot was taken offline due to “unexpectedly high traffic & capacity limit,” according to LMSYS Org.

The sudden appearance and disappearance of the chatbot led to speculation that it might be an unreleased AI system from OpenAI. Some pointed to cryptic tweets from OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, and staff member Steven Heidel, which referenced “gpt-2.” This led to theories that the model might be a new type of GPT system, rather than an incremental update.

The incident highlights happens at the same time as rumours are swirling about a major new release from OpenAI. Altman has been referring to GPT 4 as “embarrassing” compared to what is to come and dropping rumours about OpenAI entering the search arena.