In brief
- Tammy Carvey of Michigan used ChatGPT to pick Powerball numbers, and won $100,000 in the draw.
- AI tools marketed as “lottery predictors” show no proven accuracy, experts say—they mimic randomness.
- AI helps lotteries detect fraud and monitor gambling, but doesn’t boost players’ winning chances.
Tammy Carvey’s $100,000 Powerball win is turning heads—not for its size, but for the method that led to it.
Carvey, a 45-year-old resident of Wyandotte, Michigan, claimed to have used ChatGPT to generate her numbers for the September 6 Powerball drawing. Carvey’s ticket matched four white balls and the Powerball, earning her a $50,000 prize that doubled to $100,000 through the game’s Power Play feature, according to the Michigan Lottery.
“I asked ChatGPT for a set of Powerball numbers and those are the numbers I played on my ticket,” Carvey said.
After prompting ChatGPT for numbers, Carvey entered the results into the Powerball system and later discovered she had won.
“It wasn’t until I logged into my Michigan Lottery account that I realized I added the Power Play to my ticket and actually won $100,000!” she said. “My husband and I were in total disbelief.”
Carvey is the latest lottery winner to claim to have used ChatGPT to hit the jackpot. In September, Carrie Edwards of Virginia won $150,000, similarly saying that she used OpenAI’s chatbot to generate winning numbers.
The irony of using AI to predict lottery numbers is that AI is already playing a legitimate role in the lottery business. Across the country, lottery officials are turning to artificial intelligence to secure systems, detect fraud, and protect players. In other words, AI is reshaping how lotteries are run—not how they’re won—and the Michigan Lottery emphasized that Powerball results remain entirely random.
While Carvey’s win using ChatGPT didn’t change the outcome, it illustrates how people are looking to fold AI into games that once depended on a lucky rabbit’s foot.
The Michigan Lottery did not immediately respond to requests for comment by Decrypt.
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