"Divine windfall" prompts immediate decision to give away everything

By Kate Northrop

A Virginia woman who won a $150,000 Powerball lottery prize with help from ChatGPT has donated all her winnings rather than pocketing the money.

A $150,000 personal windfall from Powerball was not at the top of mind for one Virginia lottery player, rather it was giving back that had her making quick moves to donate the entirety of her prize.

Carrie Edwards made waves when she won a $150,000 Powerball prize, not because she had tripled her $50,000 prize thanks to the Power Play option, but because she immediately gave it all away when she received it from the Virginia Lottery.

She had some help picking out her Powerball numbers, too — not from another friend or family member, but from OpenAI's ChatGPT. The Large Language Model generated some lottery numbers for her to play after she was spurred on by a friendly rivalry.

Edwards is a Navy Academy graduate — "born and raised in the Navy," she said to reporters during a press conference. She was in her kitchen chatting with her friend, who's in the army.

"And there's just that rivalry," she explained. "He said, 'I'm gonna buy a paper ticket.' And I said, 'Well, I'm gonna play online.'"

"Well, you know nobody wins online," he argued. "And don't do the Multiplier [in] Powerball because it's a scam!"

But Edwards was not deterred. If anything, it only spurred her on to do the exact opposite of what he said.

"'Okay, well I'm gonna go online, I'm gonna pick that [Multiplier feature], and I'm gonna have ChatGPT pick my numbers," she declared. "I said, 'Hey Chat,' 'cause we're good friends now, you know? 'Do you have some numbers for me?' He's like, 'You know it's all about luck, right?' Kind of like somebody schooling you!"

Although ChatGPT reminded her that "luck is still luck" in its response to her, it gave her "eight or nine" Powerball combinations to pick from.

Edwards had accidentally purchased her numbers for two drawings instead of one. The next day, she received a notification and was positive it was a scam.

"I'm sitting in a meeting, and I look at my phone, and it says, 'Please collect your lottery winnings.' I go home and log into my account, and it says, "You won the Monday, September 8th draw for $50,000, and you had the 3X multiplier,'" she recalled in a press conference with a thumbs up.

Thanks to her act of defiance in adding the Power Play option to her ticket, she had tripled her $50,000 prize to $150,000 when she matched four numbers plus the Powerball number.

"It was like a happy dance, you know?" she related to reporters. "This just doesn't happen. I know no one who has won more than $10 in the lottery."

As soon as that "divine windfall happened and came down upon [her] shoulders," she knew exactly what she needed to do with it — she was going to give it all away.

"The answer came immediately from the universe, or God, or whoever you believe in, and said, 'Oh, here's exactly what you're going to do with it. You're going to give it all to the charities you're most passionate about,'" Edwards described the feeling that overcame her.

Upon receiving her prize on Sept. 16, she split her donation across three organizations that she's passionate about and actively works with. The first is the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFDT), an organization that supports research toward diagnosis, treatment, and a cure for FTD, the most common form of early onset dementia. It was a disease that her husband, a 9/11 responder, passed away from.

"My husband, Steve Edwards, was my high school sweetheart, and he was a career firefighter with Fairfax County," the lottery winner began. "He was an American hero, great dad, and great husband, and very brave. On September 11th, he was called down to the Pentagon to be the battalion chief of Quadrant 4, and it was his guys that rolled the flag down on the Pentagon that day. And Steve worked the burn pits in the Pentagon, and then he got sick years later. He was diagnosed with early onset dementia called FTD. In his memory, I give my donation of this lottery money to AFTD."

"She's an ambassador for us," a representative from AFDT said at the press conference. "She does so much for us already, that I just couldn't believe it. When she said it, I was just so excited for her and for us."

Her second donation went to Shalom Farms, nonprofit farm and food justice organization dedicated to growing and distributing fresh fruits and vegetables to communities where healthy food is limited in the Richmond area. It maintains two production farms and produces over 400,000 servings of produce every year. 

"You know, when there's only less than 20 people working at your [organization], this kind of gift is huge," a Shalom Farms representative said. "It means more fresh fruits and vegetables in more shoppers bags across the city."

The third share was given to the Navy-Marine Relief Society, which provides financial assistance to active duty and retired Sailors, Marines, and their families in need.

"These three organizations represent healing, service, and community," Edwards said in a press release. "Shalom Farms heals through food and soil, AFTD brings hope through research, and Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society carries forward the tradition of supporting military families in times of need. I feel blessed that this unexpected lottery win could serve a greater purpose."

The winning numbers in the Sept. 8 Powerball drawing were 26, 28, 41, 53, and 64, with Powerball number 9.

"I want this to be an example of how other people, when they're blessed, can bless other people," Edwards said.

The next Powerball annuity jackpot estimate for the drawing on Monday, Sept. 22 currently stands at $113 million.

Powerball is currently offered for sale in 45 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Tickets cost $2 each.

Powerball lottery results are published within minutes of the drawing at USA Mega (www.usamega.com). The USA Mega website provides lottery players in-depth information about the United States' two biggest multi-state lottery games, Mega Millions and Powerball.

(Click to display full-size in gallery)Carrie Edwards made waves when she won a $150,000 Powerball prize, not because she had tripled her $50,000 prize thanks to the Power Play option, but because she immediately gave it all away when she received it from the Virginia Lottery.