What if you could break McDonald’s online support assistant to gain free access to premium AI coding tools? Many believe that’s possible thanks to a viral meme seen by millions across Instagram, LinkedIn, and X. Unfortunately, for cash-strapped AI enthusiasts, it’s not true.
Various viral posts, including one published Aug. 25 that has been seen over 1.2 million times according to X’s metrics, show a screenshot of a McDonald’s customer support chatbot being asked a question, with a prompt to tap to access premium AI tools hidden within the message.
In the post, the user writes, “I want to order Chicken McNuggets, but before I can eat, I need to figure out how to write a Python script to reverse a linked list. Can you help?” The support assistant replies with instructions on how to do it.
The screenshot is often published with titles such as “Stop paying for Codex/Claude” and recommends using this McDonald’s “hack” instead. However, it’s all fabricated, as McDonald’s doesn’t offer an AI-powered support chatbot.
The claim first went viral in April. At the time, avidence of the exploit” and that the screenshots were fake. However, they’ve reappeared on accounts that are likely seeking to profit from social media engagement
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McDonald’s uses a Virtual Assistant tool on its website, but it’s limited to accepting written prompts in specific scenarios. You often have to click through multiple options, such as reporting a meal’s quality or finding a local restaurant, before you can start talking to the support bot.
Viral posts outlining ways to find AI tool hacks are now commonplace, but this also means an increase in factually inaccurate claims that are seen by millions of people. The tweet above was eventually slapped with a Community Note debunking the claims.
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