Out of thin air

“Out of thin air” means that something appears suddenly or seems to come from nowhere, without any obvious explanation or reason. It’s like magic, where something just appears out of nowhere without any visible source or explanation.

You often say, “She got that out of thin air” or “It came out of thin air.” For example, a writer might be struck with an idea for a new story. The story idea came to her suddenly. She didn’t try to invent a story idea: she just had the idea. She got the idea out of thin air. Or, the story idea came to her out of thin air. It seemed to come from nothing and for no reason at all.

ChatGPT can tell you some amazing things; many of them, though, aren’t true. ChatGPT isn’t a researcher and can’t think for itself. ChatGPT also does not disclose how or why it produces its answers. So when ChatGPT says something that’s not true, it feels like it comes out of thin air: it just invented an incorrect fact.