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NEED TO KNOW
- A Michigan woman won $100,000 playing the lottery — and she had ChatGPT pick her numbers
- Tammy Carvey, 45, said she and her husband were in “total disbelief” when they realized she had won
- This is the second time in recent weeks that a lotto player has used AI to select a winning combination of numbers
A Michigan woman won $100,000 playing Powerball — and ChatGPT picked her winning numbers.
Tammy Carvey, 45, of Wyandotte bought a lottery ticket online at MichiganLottery.com for the Sept. 6 drawing, per a press release from the Michigan Lottery.
“I only play Powerball when the jackpot gets up there, and the jackpot was over $1 billion, so I bought a ticket,” Carvey told lottery officials when she claimed her prize.
And while many people choose numbers of personal significance or sentimental value when playing the lotto, Carvey opted for a different approach: AI.
“I asked ChatGPT for a set of Powerball numbers, and those are the numbers I played on my ticket,” she explained.
She also said that she initially thought she won $50,000 — half the actual amount she ultimately took home.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty
“When I checked the winning numbers, I saw I matched four white balls and the Powerball and knew I had to have won something,” she recalled. “Google told me it was a $50,000 prize, so that’s what I thought I’d won. It wasn’t until I logged into my Michigan Lottery account that I realized I added the Power Play to my ticket and actually won $100,000!”
“My husband and I were in total disbelief,” she added.
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As for what Carvey plans to do with her winnings? She said she will pay off her home and save the rest, per Michigan Lottery.
This isn’t the first time a lotto winner has used AI to select winning numbers. Virginia woman Carrie Edwards used ChatGPT to select Powerball numbers for the Sept. 8 Virginia Lotto drawing. She ultimately won $150,000, all of which she donated to charity.
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“I’m like, ‘ChatGPT, talk to me […] Do you have numbers for me?’ ” Edwards recalled while speaking at a press conference shared by the Virginia Lottery.