“In short, ChatGPT might sound like the Star Trek computer, but for now, you still can’t trust it.”
Our reading, the sentence that was checked:
ChatGPT cannot currently be trusted.
Assessment: Supported Evidence as of
Where and when Gary Marcus wrote it
Marcus on AI, What to Expect When You’re Expecting … GPT-4, paragraph 22.
- Said
- Source observed
- live page, full text, public
- Evidence as of
- the cutoff for this assessment
- Assessment recorded
- assessment marcus-what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-c24f5f-a1
We recorded 21 claims from this post. See every claim from this post.
The wording above is the version this site observed on 2026-10-29. The source may have been edited after 2022-12-25. This page does not claim the wording was captured then.
What the claim commits to
- Kind
- Observation
- Deadline, as the speaker wrote it
- None stated. This site does not add one.
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Deadline state on 2026-10-29
- No horizon (the release’s reference date)
Conditions
- for now (qualifier, stated by the speaker)
From the speaker
- ChatGPT
- for now
- you still can’t trust it
Our interpretation
- In the surrounding discussion of false answers, the ordinary reading is that fluent substantive answers cannot be accepted as dependable without checking.
- This does not assert that every answer is wrong or that every use is unsuitable.
- For now describes the system at publication; it is not a conditional forecast.
- The target period is the initial public release through the post date.
Counts as supported if: Contemporary evidence establishes that plausible-looking answers can contain errors users cannot reliably identify from presentation alone, making independent checking necessary before factual reliance.
Counts as contradicted if: Contemporary evidence establishes dependable factual answers across ordinary uses, with errors reliably identified or uncertainty appropriately signaled.
Retrospective: these criteria were written after the outcome was public.
Current assessment
Was it true for the period described?
Outcome: Supported
The dated evidence matches what the claim committed to, under the criteria frozen before grading.
Scored on a plain reading. The speaker named no measure for this claim, so it was judged on the reading an informed reader would take, stated below under our interpretation. Both reviews had to find that reading fair.
- Evidence as of
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Assessment recorded
- Policy version
- 2026-10-28.7
Rationale
OpenAI's contemporary disclosure explicitly acknowledges convincing but incorrect answers. That supports the contextual reading that fluency was insufficient grounds for factual reliance without checking. It does not establish that ChatGPT was useless or that all its answers were wrong.
Limitations
- The conclusion concerns unverified factual reliance, not every possible use.
- No task-specific reliability threshold or overall error rate is established.
Evidence (1 item)
Supports the claim: OpenAI,
incorrect or nonsensical
Why it matters here: The developer acknowledges that convincing presentation can accompany incorrect content. The need to verify substantive answers before relying on them is an evaluator inference from this disclosed limitation.
- Publisher
- OpenAI
- Kind of source
- Company disclosure: the company describing itself, not an independent finding
- Describes events of
- Public from
Where it was said (1)
Said once in the sources this register covers.
: Marcus on AI, What to Expect When You’re Expecting … GPT-4
In short, ChatGPT might sound like the Star Trek computer, but for now, you still can’t trust it.
- Where
- paragraph 22
- Published
- 2022-12-25
- Source observed
- , live page
- Access
- full text, public
History
Assessment versions
- Assessment marcus-what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-c24f5f-a1: Current. Outcome: Supported. Evidence as of 2026-10-28. Public date not recorded.
Recorded events
Assessment publishedBy this site
First assessment published after both reviews and the final-text check passed.
About assessment marcus-what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-c24f5f-a1.