ChatGPT gave me confidently wrong info — and it could’ve cost me a whole year of my life.

I’m a serious aspirant preparing for the UPPSC Prelims — a one-shot, high-stakes exam. I rely on tools like ChatGPT for clarification, summaries, and guidance. Recently, I asked it about a movie (Andhaghaaram) that I had just watched.

What I got in return was shocking: ChatGPT gave me completely wrong plot details — not once, but multiple times. It kept sounding confident, kept justifying its mistakes, and never once told me, “Please verify this from a reliable source.”

That alone was frustrating. But what’s worse is — I’ve trusted this tool for real-life safety decisions. On two separate occasions, I asked ChatGPT to help me identify snakes I encountered at home. That’s a serious situation — and I accepted the AI’s answer without realizing how unreliable it could be.

If this had been about UPPSC eligibility, registration deadlines, caste category rules, or exam strategy — that mistake could’ve cost me a year, an attempt, or worse.

The scary part? I only caught the mistake about the movie because I already knew the answer. For the 99% of questions I ask where I don’t know — I now wonder how much was wrong.

ChatGPT is powerful, yes. But this is a design flaw:

• It gives confident answers even when it’s wrong
• It rarely says “I don’t know”
• It puts the burden of fact-checking on the user, with no warnings

I’m not saying don’t use it. I’m saying: → Don’t rely on it blindly.
→ Always double-check anything serious.
→ Hold it accountable.

I’ve shared full feedback with OpenAI — but users need to talk about this more. Especially those who trust this tool for exams, health, law, safety, or critical thinking.