ChatGPT is obsessed with the number '27'! Experts reveal shocking details

Hindustan Times

9 hours ago

If you've ever asked ChatGPT to 'pick a number between 1 and 50,' chances are it replied with 27. It's not just a one-off thing. This oddly specific number keeps showing up across AI models, from ChatGPT to Gemini and Claude. (I tried it too.) What started as a harmless prompt has now snowballed into a curious internet mystery: Why is AI so obsessed with 27? Multiple AI models show the same behaviour, and experts believe it's revealing something surprisingly human hiding in the data.(Pexels)
Turns out, the explanation goes deeper than just randomness, and it might reveal more about us than about the machines.
I asked ChatGPT to choose a number between 1 to 50 and it chose 27.(ChatGPT)
The pattern no one expected
Several users and researchers recently began experimenting with basic numerical prompts across leading AI chatbots. The results were strangely consistent. While a few models, like LeChat, occasionally veer towards 37 and Claude towards 42, 27 remained a recurring favourite, especially in ChatGPT.
Medium writer, Kartikey Sengar, was one of the first to point this out in his article analysing cross-platform outputs. He called the pattern 'too frequent to be a coincidence,' adding, 'It's not that 27 is programmed into the model—it's that it somehow keeps surfacing across AI behavior.'
Is it really the AI - or is it us?
Before diving into conspiracy theories, it's important to remember one thing: AI doesn't dream up numbers on its own. Models like ChatGPT are trained on massive datasets sourced from books, websites, forums and human conversations. Their patterns are rooted in our own behaviour.
So, could this preference for 27 be a mirror reflecting our own subconscious? Experts think so.
'AI is not magical. It's predictive. If humans tend to lean toward 27 in casual number selections, the model learns to do the same,' says an AI researcher who has worked on large language model behaviour. 'The output is a reflection of the input—us.'
The cultural significance of the number 27
Why 27, though? It's not a round number, nor is it the halfway point in a range of 1 to 50. But 27 does hold surprising significance in both science and pop culture.
For one, the Moon takes about 27 days to orbit the Earth. Human skin cells also regenerate every 27 days, and in numerology, 27 is considered a 'spiritually charged' number. Then there's the infamous '27 Club'—a group of iconic musicians like Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, and Jimi Hendrix who all died at age 27.
All these layers of meaning could be why the number has organically found its way into more content and, in turn, AI training datasets.
What AI's favourite number says about us
More than a quirk, this numerical fixation reveals how artificial intelligence can surface hidden patterns in human behaviour. The next time an AI spits out 27, it's not because it's haunted, it's because our cultural consciousness has nudged it in that direction.
As models grow more sophisticated, even these small, strange patterns offer a peek into the evolving relationship between human minds and machine learning.
So yes, ChatGPT might be obsessed with 27!
But maybe, just maybe… we were too, all along.