AI tips to win the lottery, a gamble or a gold mine for businesses?

(Dan Tri) - An American woman won $150,000 by asking ChatGPT. But behind this sensational story, is AI the new "genius" of fortune, or is this a valuable lesson about productivity and sobriety in business?

Recently, Carrie Edwards, a Midlothian, Virginia resident, decided to try her luck with the Powerball lottery for the first time online. Confused by the array of numbers, she came up with a modern idea: asking ChatGPT. “Hey ChatGPT, can you give me some numbers for this $1.7 billion jackpot?” she asked.

The popular chatbot responded matter-of-factly: “Carrie, you know it’s all luck, right?” Still, it spit out a series of numbers. Edwards used them as a bet, adding $1 for the multiplier option.

Two days later, a message popped up on her phone: “Claim your winnings.” At first, she thought it was a scam. But when she logged into her account, she was stunned to see that she had won $50,000, and thanks to the $1 option, the amount was tripled to $150,000.

Carrie Edwards’ story quickly spread around the world , sparking a new craze for using artificial intelligence to find fortunes. On social media, a user named Ariel excitedly boasted of winning $11 thanks to a series of numbers from AI. In Thailand, a man also claimed to have won $59 in a similar way.

The keyword “using AI to predict lottery” has become a hot search trend. Forums and social networks are full of questions, shared experiences, and even hopes of changing one’s life thanks to a few lines of code.

From a few dozen USD to hundreds of thousands of USD, AI is being hailed by the online community as a "fortune teller" of the technology era (Illustration: LinkedIn).

But from a business perspective, the story goes beyond the luck of a few individuals and opens up a much larger discussion: What is the real value of AI, and what is the sweet illusion that we need to be awake to?

AI is not a magic wand

Can AI really “see” the future? The answer from experts and data scientists is a resounding “no.”

The nature of the lottery is that it is a game based on absolute randomness. Each ball drawn is an independent event, unaffected by previous draws. There is no rule, no pattern that a machine, no matter how intelligent, can analyze and predict.

So what did ChatGPT do? It essentially acted as a super autocomplete engine. Trained on massive corpora of text, large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are incredibly good at recognizing language patterns and predicting the next word.

When you ask it to pick a number, it simply does one thing: generate a random sequence of numbers based on its internal algorithms. This sequence of numbers is no luckier than the sequence you come up with yourself, or the sequence of numbers chosen by the ticket machine (Quick Pick).

In other words, Carrie Edwards winning the lottery with ChatGPT is similar to her winning the lottery by pointing at a calendar with her eyes closed. It's a fascinating coincidence, but it's not a replicable investment strategy or method.

There’s even an interesting business risk in following this trend. Suppose millions of people ask ChatGPT the same question, and the AI ​​tends to spit out similar sequences of numbers.

If one of those numbers hits the jackpot, the huge prize will have to be divided among millions of people, and each person’s reward will be extremely small. The AI-based gambling suddenly becomes a game with extremely low odds of winning and even lower expected returns.

So, if AI can’t help you win the lottery, is the global rush to invest billions in this technology a waste? The answer is no. They’re not looking for luck, they’re looking for a “money-printing machine” in a completely different way.

The real "jackpot": AI is a productivity multiplier for businesses

Carrie Edwards’ story is inspiring, especially when she decided to donate all $150,000 to three charities, both to honor her late husband and to help the community. Her actions show that the greatest value lies not in lucky numbers but in how we use our resources.

The core lesson is that instead of trying to use AI to predict the impossible, smart businesses are tapping into its true power.

A data scientist with over 10 years of experience likened AI to a smart co-pilot or intern. It cannot replace the captain (you), but it can take on repetitive, time-consuming, and tiresome tasks.

It helps you automate the boring tasks, giving you more mental space and time to focus on what really creates value: strategic thinking, breakthrough innovation, and critical decision making.

Here's how the AI ​​"jackpot" is being applied in the business world:

Optimizing Time and Resources: A data scientist can spend hours writing and debugging a complex SQL query. With AI, he can get a sample code in seconds, saving time on analyzing the results.

A project manager can ask AI to summarize a 50-page technical document into 5 easy-to-understand bullet points to report to management. This is a tangible ROI: time saved, project progress accelerated.

Improved communication and operations: Drafting a polite email asking about project progress or a Slack message with an update can be handled expertly by AI. This helps remove small communication barriers, ensuring a smooth flow of information within the business, especially in remote work environments.

Brainstorming and rapid prototyping tools: When stuck for ideas for a marketing campaign, a team can ask AI to “play the customer” and ask critical questions, or suggest 10 different promotional email subject lines. AI becomes a creative partner, helping teams overcome initial obstacles and quickly create prototypes for testing.

Logic and Problem Solving Support: Programmers have long had a method called “rubber duck debugging”, which involves explaining your problem to a rubber duck so it can figure out the error itself. AI is becoming the “smartest rubber duck in the world”. By presenting the problem, AI can not only listen but also make useful suggestions.

If used properly, AI can help an individual perform at the same level as an entire team (Photo: Envato Elements).

Tips for Safe and Effective AI Mining

The “win the lottery with AI” craze is a powerful reminder of the need for critical thinking. Like any powerful tool, AI can be a huge asset or a dangerous trap, depending on how we use it.

To exploit the AI ​​"gold mine" effectively and safely, businesses need to remember 3 golden principles:

Security first: Do not share sensitive business data, customer information, or trade secrets on public AI instances. Consider enterprise AI solutions with clear privacy commitments.

Always verify : AI can “illusion,” that is, make up information but present it in an extremely convincing way. Every result generated by AI, from a piece of code to a financial number to a legal term, must be carefully reviewed by humans.

Treat AI as a tool, not a truth: AI doesn’t have the ability to deeply understand context, corporate culture, or the subtle nuances of human communication. True creativity and groundbreaking decisions still come from your intelligence and experience.

Carrie Edwards’ story is a happy note in the complex symphony of artificial intelligence. It shows the power of luck and kindness. But don’t let the glitter of $150,000 overshadow the real value.

The AI ​​lottery is a sure-fire long-term loser. But betting on intelligently applying AI to improve productivity, optimize processes, and unleash human creativity is a sure-fire investment.

The biggest jackpot AI will offer us is not money falling from the sky, but the opportunity to work smarter, faster, and more efficiently. That is the “lottery ticket” every business should be chasing.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/ai-mach-nuoc-trung-so-canh-bac-may-rui-hay-mo-vang-cho-doanh-nghiep-20250923092533816.htm