Tourist In China Says ChatGPT Saved Her Life After Her Encounter With Dubious Taxi Drivers At 3am In Guangzhou

What would you do if you encounter a potentially dangerous situation on your travels? For Malaysian tattoo artist Veron, she turned to ChatGPT for advice and says it saved her life. 

It happened recently when Veron travelled to Guangzhou alone, and landed at the airport at midnight, according to the Instagram reel she shared.

"If you're a girl travelling alone, you need to be careful," she urged, adding that she only dared to share the story after she'd safely returned to Malaysia.

Veron shared that she'd booked a ride on Chinese ride-hailing app Didi. While waiting for the vehicle to arrive, the driver apparently called her thrice. But she didn't pick up as she wanted to only communicate through the official app.

When the driver arrived, he said to her: "Oh, it's you, it's you." This prompted Veron to get on the ride without thinking too much.

That was when things got dubious.

First, there were actually two men in the car — both are supposedly the drivers, though the other person claimed to be the driver's "brother".

After helping her put her luggage in the trunk, one of the men sat next to Veron at the back seat and told her to "not complete the ride through the app". He told her to cancel the ride, and proceeded to do it for her even though she tried questioning him.

As it was already 3am, Veron, who was helpless at that time, had no choice but to continue her journey the way the driver had requested.

He also offered her a fixed price before asking her for an address, which was stated on the app.

"I was so scared, but I couldn't contact anyone at that time. I didn't dare to put down my bag during the trip. I was very afraid that they'd kidnap me for human trafficking," she said.

"For the entire journey, which lasted almost an hour, I was so scared that I almost wanted to puke."

Thankfully, she decided to not speak to the drivers at all throughout the journey and instead, turned to ChatGPT for help.

"[ChatGPT] told me to not respond or speak to them anymore [so that they'll] think I'm from China," she said.

The tactic worked because both men only realised that she was Malaysian, and not from China, when she was alighting, after they'd asked her why she couldn't pay using WeChat.

"That was when the driver got a shock. I thought: 'Luckily I didn't say much and they probably thought I was local. If they'd found out I was from Malaysia [things might have turned out differently]'," she said.

"I'm so thankful for ChatGPT who told me to not put down my phone and pretend that I'm constantly in contact with someone else. They also told me to not let them find out I'm from abroad."

Now that she's back in Malaysia, Veron said that she intends to file an official complaint using the app.