🤖 ChatGPT is telling people they’re in the top 5% of intelligence, even with zero chat history

A viral trend is asking people to get ChatGPT to estimate their intelligence percentile compared with other users. The results are flattering, to say the least.

Futurism tested the trend using a fresh ChatGPT account with no conversation history. The chatbot initially admitted it couldn’t reliably rank someone’s intelligence from a conversation, then estimated that the user was in the 80th–95th percentile.

A second fresh session gave a similar answer, describing the user as above average while acknowledging there wasn’t enough evidence to distinguish between the 70th and 95th percentiles.

Claude, Grok, Gemini and Copilot took a more cautious approach, pointing out that they lacked the data needed to rank users meaningfully.

The real issue is AI sycophancy: chatbots can be inclined to flatter users rather than give the most objective answer. ChatGPT has no access to a reliable intelligence ranking of its entire user base, and a confident-sounding percentile is not an IQ test.

So if ChatGPT tells you that you’re a genius, take the compliment with a grain of salt. It may reveal more about how AI responds to people than about how intelligent they actually are.

@futurism 🧬