ChatGPT seems to be confused about when its knowledge ends

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET

Despite ChatGPT's many incredible capabilities, it has one big Achilles heel -- a lack of information on current events. However, it seems like OpenAI might be quietly working on a solution. 

When OpenAI first unveiled ChatGPT nearly a year ago, the AI chatbot only had knowledge of information that had occurred before September 2021 since the data it was trained on only covered that scope of time.

Also: The best AI chatbots

Recently, however, some users have been taking to X (formerly Twitter) to share that they noticed an expansion in the time frame of knowledge that the chatbot possesses. 

Whoa
chatGPT is now up to date as of last month
Knowledge cutoff sept 2023
Less than 30 days old!! pic.twitter.com/lIOEtdYyUa

— Nick Dobos (@NickADobos) October 26, 2023

In the example above, the user asked ChatGPT Plus with GPT-4 what its knowledge cutoff is, and it responded with "September 2023," which makes ChatGPT's scope of knowledge extremely recent. 

Other ChatGPT Plus users in the thread got the same response from the AI chatbot regarding its scope of knowledge. However, when asked about current events that occurred within the period of time that it claims to be aware of, ChatGPT didn't seem to have the answers. 

Seems like a few other folks are also seeing September 2023, but also running into similar issues actually pulling relevant events out
Very odd. Wonder if the system prompt got updated but the underlying model didn’t??? Maybe a weird rollout?! https://t.co/hxRw3JoU3Q

— Nick Dobos (@NickADobos) October 26, 2023

ZDNET decided to put it to the test and asked both ChatGPT Plus with GPT-4 and standard ChatGPT with GPT-3.5 what its scope of knowledge is. In both cases, ChatGPT responded with January 2022. 

AI in 2023: A year of breakthroughs that left no human thing unchanged These are the jobs most likely to be taken over by AI AI at the edge: 5G and the Internet of Things see fast times ahead Almost half of tech executives say their organizations aren't ready for AI or other advanced initiatives AI in 2023: A year of breakthroughs that left no human thing unchanged

These are the jobs most likely to be taken over by AI

AI at the edge: 5G and the Internet of Things see fast times ahead

Almost half of tech executives say their organizations aren't ready for AI or other advanced initiatives

Editorial standards Show Comments