ChatGPT answers English users in Welsh

Occurred: August 2024

ChatGPT's new voice interface responded to English-language prompts in Welsh, resulting in bewilderment and ridicule. 

OpenAI attributed the problem to limitations in its voice transcription system, Whisper, which can mistakenly transcribe audio into Welsh instead of English.

To mitigate this issue, users are advised to change their “Speech” setting from “Auto-detect” to English.

The Welsh language bug is a new manifestation of the common problem of large language models “hallucinating.” The problem continues to plague generative AI systems despite years of development and significant investment, according to the Financial Times.