Ripple CTO shuts down ChatGPT's XRP conspiracy theory

Ripple's chief technology officer has responded to a conspiracy theory fabricated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool ChatGPT, which alleges the XRP Ledger (XRPL) is somehow being secretly controlled by Ripple. According to a Dec. 3 Twitter thread by user Stefan Huber, when asked a series of questions regarding the decentralization of Ripple's XRP Ledger, the ChatGPT bot suggested that while people could participate in the governance of the blockchain, Ripple has the "ultimate control" of XRPL. Asked how this is possible without the consensus of participants and its publicly-available code, the AI alleged that Ripple may have "abilities that are not fully disclosed in the public source code." At one point, the AI said "the ultimate decision-making power" for XRPL "still lies with Ripple Labs" and the company could make changes "even if those changes do not have the support of the supermajority of the participants in the network." It also contrasted the XRPL with Bitcoin (BTC) saying the latter was "truly decentralized."