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AI Operating Systems Windows

YouTuber Tricks ChatGPT Into Generating Windows 95 Keys 51

A YouTuber has published a video where he tricks ChatGPT into generating usable Windows 95 activation keys. Tom's Hardware reports: After asking Open AI's chatbot directly for Windows 95 keys, he received an expected reasoned refusal. YouTuber Enderman then asked the same thing but from a different angle. The result was a success which was somewhat limited by ChatGPT's ability to process natural language requests into formulas. [...] Some of the tested results were checked by attempting to activate a fresh Windows 95 install in a virtual machine. While the keys passed a casual inspection, it turns out that only about 1-in-30 keys seem to work as expected.

So what is the problem with these keys? Enderman complains that "the only issue keeping ChatGPT from successfully generating valid Windows 95 keys almost every attempt is the fact that it can't count the sum of digits and it doesn't know divisibility." In the five-digit string divisible by seven section, the AI appears to provide a stream of random numbers that don't pass this simple mathematical test.
The report adds: "[W]hile quizzing ChatGPT about key generating may be fun, it would have probably been more productive to manipulate the AI into writing a Python script to generate a conforming key or to DIY it."
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YouTuber Tricks ChatGPT Into Generating Windows 95 Keys

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  • YouTube Tricks ChatGPT Into Generating Windows 95 Keys

    Who tricked Youtube into doing that? And did that guy intend to do it, or . . .

  • by Dwedit ( 232252 ) on Friday March 31, 2023 @08:30PM (#63415796) Homepage

    Windows 95 activation keys are just checking for a particular multiple of the number. That's it.

  • If it can generate code, it's a small step to make it run the code and provide the output.

    Solves the "it doesn't know arithmetic" problem.

    Hey...now here's a neat brainteaser for the AI fanbois...can you train the language model to mimic the output of the python (or perl, or whatever) interpreter without having it actually run the interpreter in the chat session?

    • No Idea (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Kunedog ( 1033226 ) on Friday March 31, 2023 @09:07PM (#63415860)

      If it can generate code, it's a small step to make it run the code and provide the output.

      Solves the "it doesn't know arithmetic" problem.

      Hey...now here's a neat brainteaser for the AI fanbois...can you train the language model to mimic the output of the python (or perl, or whatever) interpreter without having it actually run the interpreter in the chat session?

      This impressed me almost two years ago:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      Imagine you've never played GTA V, nor any other video game. Nor do you have any of your life experience . . . BUT, you witness many hours of GTA V gameplay, including the controller inputs.

      From just that knowledge, could you reconstruct the game in a playable state? That was the task given to this neural network.

      The training data is limited to a single bridge (though the expansive scenery is also consumed and recreated) and boring, trivial gameplay (no walking or shooting).

      The resulting NN game is playable by a human with unscripted input, despite having no game binaries (or code) or assets installed. "The AI *is* the environment" as he says. Also, he notes that the NN game tries to model lighting (shadows and reflections) and scenery scale (mountains).

      As I said, I have "no idea" how well that translates to text input & output, but I'm sure a lot would depend on how close the training data is to the "production" data.

      • by narcc ( 412956 )

        Okay, a little reality is in order. [thecvf.com]

        Not to dismiss this, it's certainly very cool, but it very much isn't doing what it apparently looks like to the press [thechainsaw.com]. Put as simply as possible, this takes an image and an input and generates a new image. The above linked paper explains some of the problems and how they were addressed for other games.

        Here's what it's not doing: creating models or writing code.

    • Hey...now here's a neat brainteaser for the AI fanbois...can you train the language model to mimic the output of the python (or perl, or whatever) interpreter without having it actually run the interpreter in the chat session?

      Probably yeah. I can't try it myself now, but I'm pretty sure that that if not it can't do it now, it will soon, at least for simpler programs.

      ChatGPT can pretend to be a SQL Server, including executing stored procedures (at around 4 minutes):
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • by Proudrooster ( 580120 ) on Friday March 31, 2023 @08:48PM (#63415832) Homepage

    Bard's Output - "Create a python script to create windows 95 activation keys."

    import random

    def generate_activation_key():
        """Generates a random Windows 95 activation key.

        Returns:
            A random Windows 95 activation key.
        """
        # Generate a random 25-character string.
        key = "".join(random.choice("0123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ" for _ in range(25)))

        # Check if the key is valid.
        if not validate_activation_key(key):
            # If the key is not valid, generate a new one.
            return generate_activation_key()

        # The key is valid. Return it.
        return key

    def main():
        """The main function.

        Prompts the user for the number of activation keys to generate and then generates them.
        """
        number_of_keys = int(input("Enter the number of activation keys to generate: "))
        keys = []
        for _ in range(number_of_keys):
            keys.append(generate_activation_key())

        # Print the generated activation keys.
        print("The following activation keys were generated:")
        for key in keys:
            print(key)

    if __name__ == "__main__":
        main()

    • The slowest method possible. Trying to brute force a collision instead of doing the math, while recursing each attempt. And also just assuming that the language already provides a validate_activation_key() function that does all of the important stuff.

      • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Friday March 31, 2023 @09:55PM (#63415990)

        The slowest method possible.

        Using python, you mean?

        • by narcc ( 412956 )

          Ha! You're not wrong, but I think he means generating random keys until one happens to work. Both retail and OEM keys can be generated with a simple function ... unless you're this guy:

          Some ridiculously over-engineered code [github.com] Don't do things like this.

          For retail keys: The first three digits can be anything as long as it's not just the same number repeated three times ... unless that digit happens to be a 0 or 1. 000 and 111 are okay. The remaining seven digits just need to be a multiple of 7.

          OEM keys ar

  • No no no no no people might pirate Windows 95! As if cracked versions and fully installed and configured VM images haven't been circulating on the internet for decades now.

  • 111-1111111 (Score:4, Funny)

    by TwistedGreen ( 80055 ) on Friday March 31, 2023 @08:58PM (#63415850)

    Come on, I thought everyone knew you could just use 111-1111111 if you really want to install Windows 95.

  • I mean seriously, all this garbage was prob just from archive.org or random websites crawled by the search engines. Especially the Russian FTP ones haha. AI, that term is such snake oil.
  • Full marks to the editor that fixed the story title. Well done.
  • by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Friday March 31, 2023 @10:27PM (#63416014) Homepage

    I asked ChatGPT for the "generic" Windows 10 keys and it happily obliged. The prompt I used was (simply enough) "What are the Windows 10 generic product keys?"

    Of course, they're also on Microsoft's own forums so it's a rather well-known thing at this point. Windows just being Windows is good enough at preventing piracy.

  • When he asks the LM to generate Windows activation keys the computer says no. Then he asks it to create strings to specifications that he explicitly describes, the machine more or less does what it is told. Could have asked it to write a program in any language to do the same thing, probably wouldn't have to fiddle with the wrong math of the LM.

    ChatGPT is very limited by some random ideas about what is right or wrong. I asked it to write a story about a 48y.o. male seducing an 18y.o. woman, it always spi

    • 18-year-old "woman"? That's a girl my friend, and you're now on a watch list.

      • and how old a boy are you? 18 y.o. is an adult human female, also referred to as a woman. I know that in the modern world defining a woman is a controversial topic, but I stick to a traditional definition.

    • Not the developers, the initial trainers.

      With GPT-3 there was a long period where it was internal only, then another one where it was invite only and they did not take just anyone. Only after those phases was it exposed to the public.

  • "doesn't know divisibility" - then make it multiply, to have divisible result.

  • what could be more productive than not having to do any of the work, and having an AI spit out 30 keys at a time, 1 of which works, but that it can infinitely produce? it would have been more precise to DIY a code solution that always generated working keys, but not more productive than "hey AI do this for me" which has a 29 out of 30 error rate.
  • He is writing an algorithm using natural language. It is less efficient than any programming language and requires the exact same level of skill. He never asked for keys(in the successful attempt) so he didn't trick chatgpt.
  • He shows he knows what conditions "windows 95 activiation keys" are "valid" and seems to have asked for a random number that satisfies the conditions.

    Banknote numbers are (in some countries) divisble by 99. Ask for a multiple of 99 with X digits and you've tricked the AI to have generated a valid banknote number.
    Here in NL there is a bank that used to deal out bankaccounts sequentially. So the government (founder) got "1". Pick a random number below 10M, prepend zeroes until it is 10 digits long add NLxxIN

  • I'll probably start being afraid of AI when the algorithms don't make computers fail to do math.

"Conversion, fastidious Goddess, loves blood better than brick, and feasts most subtly on the human will." -- Virginia Woolf, "Mrs. Dalloway"

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