Ask HN: Why 17? A Hacker News user posting as tonyvince7 asked why large language models consistently pick 17 when prompted to choose a number between 1 and 30, saying the behavior appeared across multiple models. The Ask HN post, submitted 18 minutes before the listing was captured, had drawn 3 points and 1 comment. | Guidelines newsguidelines.html \| FAQ newsfaq.html \| Lists lists \| API https://github.com/HackerNews/API \| Security security.html \| Legal https://www.ycombinator.com/legal/ \| Apply to YC https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ \| Contact mailto:hn@ycombinator.com | | | Hacker News news new newest \| past front \| comments newcomments \| ask ask \| show show \| jobs jobs \| submit submit | login login?goto=item%3Fid%3D49713156 | | | | Ask HN: Why 17? item?id=49713156 | | | | 3 points by tonyvince7 user?id=tonyvince7 18 minutes ago item?id=49713156 \| hide hide?id=49713156&goto=item%3Fid%3D49713156 \| past https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Ask%20HN%3A%20Why%2017%3F&type=story&dateRange=all&sort=byDate&storyText=false&prefix&page=0 \| favorite fave?id=49713156&auth=c7ba3b3b674239dcb267c1b02ff4b28d0c7b432f \| 1 comment item?id=49713156 | | | | If I ask an LLM to pick a number between 1 and 30, it always picks 17. Tried with multiple models. Why 17? |