Why does ChatGPT always pick 73 number?:Ask for random number between 1 and 100, and you’ll get an interesting answer

Have you ever asked ChatGPT to pick a random number between 1 and 100? If yes, there’s a good chance it replied with 73. Many users online have noticed the same thing and started wondering: Is 73 ChatGPT’s favourite number? Is there a hidden rule inside the AI?
The truth is much more interesting. While ChatGPT can generate all kinds of answers, it doesn’t actually pick numbers the way a dice roll or a random number generator does. So why does 73 appear so often? Let’s find out. The number that feels random When humans think of a ‘random’ number, they often avoid obvious choices. Numbers like 1, 10, 50, or 100 can feel too predictable. Instead, people tend to pick unusual numbers that look random. The number 73 fits perfectly into that category. It’s not too small, not too large, and it’s also a prime number, which makes it seem more unpredictable. Because ChatGPT is trained on human-written text, it often reflects these human preferences. Also read: China beats Elon Musk to approve world’s first commercial brain-chip: Know everything about NEO

ChatGPT isn’t actually rolling a dice One common misunderstanding is that ChatGPT generates truly random numbers. In reality, ChatGPT is a language model. It predicts the most suitable response based on patterns it learned during training. When you ask it for a random number, it doesn’t perform a real random draw. Instead, it generates an answer that appears random based on those learned patterns. As a result, some numbers can show up more often than others.

The Big Bang Theory may be partly responsible There is another reason 73 has become so popular online. Fans of the TV show The Big Bang Theory may remember an episode where the character Sheldon Cooper declares that 73 is “the best number.” The scene became widely shared on the internet and sparked countless discussions about the number. Since ChatGPT was trained on large amounts of online text, it has likely encountered these references many times. Are we just noticing 73 more often? There’s also a psychological explanation. Once people hear that ChatGPT often picks 73, they start paying attention whenever it appears. If the AI chooses 41, 62, or 88, most people quickly forget about it. But when 73 shows up, it stands out and gets shared online. This is a classic example of confirmation bias: we tend to notice things that support what we already expect. Also read: Anthropic disables its most powerful models after US govt crackdown: Officials feared the advanced AI systems could assist hackers and cyberattacks

So, is 73 ChatGPT’s secret favourite number? There is no hidden rule forcing ChatGPT to choose 73 every time. However, the number appears frequently because it feels random to humans, has cultural popularity online, and fits the patterns that language models learn from text.
So the next time ChatGPT gives you 73, don’t be surprised. It isn’t magic, and it isn’t a conspiracy. It’s simply a fascinating mix of human psychology, internet culture, and the way AI works.