A Michigan woman won $100,000 in Powerball after using ChatGPT to generate her numbers. Read the full story behind this unexpected 2025 win.
By the time Powerball jackpots start flirting with a billion dollars, something happens. People who never play suddenly do. Group chats light up. “What would you do if you won?” becomes a serious conversation.
That was the mood in September 2025 when a Wyandotte, Michigan, woman decided to buy a Powerball ticket. Nothing unusual there. What was unusual was how she chose her numbers.
Instead of birthdays, lucky digits, or the usual Quick Pick, she asked ChatGPT to generate a set of Powerball numbers.
And then those numbers hit.
Tammy Carvey doesn’t play Powerball every week. She’s more of a “when the jackpot gets ridiculous” kind of player. And in early September, it definitely qualified. The jackpot had climbed past $1 billion, so she logged onto MichiganLottery.com and bought a ticket.
Normally, she’d let the system pick for her. This time, she tried something different. Out of curiosity more than strategy, she asked ChatGPT to generate a set of Powerball numbers.
The numbers she used were 11, 23, 44, 61, and 62, with a Powerball of 17. She also added Power Play, which would turn out to matter more than she realized at the time.
No predictions. No promises. Just a randomly generated set of numbers… from a different kind of “quick pick.”
After the September 6 drawing, Tammy checked the results and did a double-take. Four white balls matched. The Powerball matched too.
She knew that combination meant something, but she wasn’t sure how much. A quick search told her it was a $50,000 prize, which is already the kind of win that makes your heart race a little.
Then she logged into her Michigan Lottery account. That’s when she realized she’d added Power Play. Her prize wasn’t $50,000 after all. It was $100,000.
She and her husband were stunned. Not screaming-confetti stunned. More like sit-down-and-stare-at-the-screen stunned. The kind where you reread it three times just to make sure you’re not missing something.
Here’s the important reality check.
Powerball is still Powerball. The numbers are drawn randomly. The odds are the same whether you use birthdays, Quick Pick, fortune cookies, or artificial intelligence. Matching four white balls and the Powerball still carries odds of about 1 in 913,000, and the jackpot odds remain roughly 1 in 292 million.
Lottery officials are quick to point out that no method improves your chances.
But stories like Tammy’s are fun because they show how people are interacting with the game in new ways. Quick Picks once felt futuristic, too. Now they’re the most common way people play. In 2025, AI just happened to join the list of “why not?” number-picking methods.
Tammy later visited Michigan Lottery headquarters to claim her prize. As for what comes next, her plans are refreshingly grounded. She intends to pay off her home and save the rest.
That approach is more common than people think. Many winners of mid-tier prizes focus on financial security first, not flashy purchases. Lottery officials often recommend that winners take their time and talk to financial professionals before making major decisions.
Using ChatGPT didn’t change the odds for Tammy. It didn’t unlock a secret system. It didn’t guarantee a win. It was, though, a fun new way to pick numbers. And in a year filled with sky-high jackpots, nonstop headlines, and a growing curiosity around AI, this win felt perfectly on-brand for 2025.
One ticket. One unexpected twist. And a reminder that while Powerball is always a long shot, every now and then, someone really does get to say, “You’re not going to believe how I picked my numbers.”