Cloud invoices repeatedly win prizes! The tax authorities claim it's legal, but AI refutes: the probability is like being hit by a meteorite 3 times

Cloud invoice caught in a wave of duplicate winning!

The Ministry of Finance has launched the 'Cloud Planting Fun e-Points Tree' activity this year, encouraging people to use cloud invoices to participate in the lucky draw. It has attracted nearly 90,000 participants and prepared a variety of prizes, including iPhone 15 Pro, iPad Pro, and 100,000 yuan in cash.

However, the results of the two rounds of lucky draws in August and October were immediately noticed by eagle-eyed netizens. It turned out that 4 participants had won multiple times in different draws. Once this news spread, netizens immediately questioned the fairness of the draws. Even the million-follower internet celebrity Cheap couldn't help but ask AI to calculate, and the results were breathtaking.

4 people win multiple times, the national tax agency responds: everything is legal

According to the disclosure by netizens on the PTT forum, the "Cloud Tree Planting Fun eCoin Collection Tree" activity started in June, with a total of 3 stages of lucky draws. However, in the list of winners for these 3 stages, 4 participants won multiple times in different stages, and even the same person won the grand prize twice in a row.

On Facebook, Wang Hongwei shared a winning comparison chart. In the chart, it can be seen that a person surnamed Chen won an iPhone 15 Pro in both the 1st and 3rd rounds, while a person surnamed Gao won an iPad Pro in both the 2nd and 3rd rounds. There were also Wu and Leung, who repeated their winnings.

Image source: Facebook, Wang Hongwei's post

In response to external doubts, the Taipei National Taxation Bureau responded on the 29th that the 'lottery process is completely legal'. It explained that the event attracted 90,000 registrations and each person can participate in different periods repeatedly. The total number of lottery participants reached 120,000 to 136,000. The quotas that did not win in the current period can be reserved for the next period. Therefore, if you continue to participate, it is possible to win multiple times in different periods. It also emphasized that there was a lawyer present to witness, ensuring transparency.

AI calculates 'astronomical-level' probability

However, the response from the National Tax Bureau is clearly untenable. Cheap, a popular web celebrity with a million fans, asked two AI models - Claude and ChatGPT - the following question: 'There are 90,000 people participating in a lucky draw, with a total of 3 chances to win. The first two times have 5 winning spots each, while the last time has 9 winning spots. What is the probability that the same 4 people win 2 times or more?'

As a result, Claude calculated the probability to be as high as 1/25,602,045,019,537,024,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, even if the draw is conducted once per second continuously, it would be difficult to see this situation occur once in hundreds of billions of years.

ChatGPT's response is similar, describing the probability as 'close to zero', and stating that it is equivalent to winning the Taiwan Grand Lottery jackpot 10 times in a row, or being hit by a meteorite 2-3 times by the same person.

As soon as the questioning of 'Cheap' came out, it immediately sparked resonance among netizens, who left comments criticizing and sarcastically saying 'No illegal activities found, thank you for your guidance' and 'Although it could have been taken by force, a lottery was still organized'. Some netizens even jokingly referred to it as a 'national-level show'.

With the gradual integration of AI and big data technologies into people's lives, it is now easy to calculate the previously unattainable 'astronomical probability' of lotteries and draws through AI. As a result, people's tolerance for 'randomness' is lower than in the past.

Events like winning multiple times in a row, which are considered astronomical probabilities, become even more incredible after being calculated by AI. With Cheap's questioning still ongoing, the Taipei National Taxation Bureau released a press release in the evening to explain that the list of winners followed by the public was the result of actively donating cloud invoices and redeeming points for more chances to win prizes. The verification process is currently underway regarding the suspicion of unfairness in the repeated winnings of the four individuals, and results will be announced to the public in due course.