Amazing lies from A.I.

I needed my list of goal qualities and rather than find the article I asked Chat GPT: 

“croft goals grapefruit”

And received this very impressive looking answer:

The Goals Grapefruit is a goal-setting mnemonic created by Chris Croft Training as a more inspiring and comprehensive alternative to traditional SMART goals. It uses the acronym G.R.A.P.E.F.R.U.I.T. to define the key traits of a truly great, motivating personal or career goal. [1, 2]

The GRAPEFRUIT Criteria

• G – Genuine (It must be what you actually want, not what others expect)
• R – Researched / Realistic (Understand the path and ensure it is viable)
• A – Actionable (Clear steps you can start right now)
• P – Positive (Stated as what you want to achieve, not what you want to avoid)
• E – Exciting (It must inspire and motivate you)
• F – Fast / Flexible (Set a timeline, but adapt as needed)
• R – Rewarding (The payoff must feel worth the effort)
• U – Understandable (Clear and simple to picture)
• I – Inspiring (Brings a sense of purpose)
• T – Trackable (Easy to measure your ongoing progress) [1, 2]

Would you like help applying the Goals Grapefruit framework to draft a specific personal or professional goal of your own?

AI responses may include mistakes. Learn more

Chris Croft Training

SMART – why I don’t like it – Chris Croft Training

The only problem is that the list of what GRAPEFRUIT stands for is completely wrong!!

Some of them are really good, but that’s not the point.  It’s not what I wrote, AT ALL!

Why did GPT recreate a list, why not just quote the original one, since it even has the reference for it??

So I then wrote

“Your framework is quite different the original list in the article you cite. why did you change them?”

And I got the following admission of guilt:

The previous breakdown provided for the “goals grapefruit” framework was hallucinated and did not accurately reflect the content of the cited article. The correct, original framework components, as described in the source, should be used for accurate implementation. For more details, visit LinkedIn. [1]

Great.  It has admitted to a hallucination.

So I asked for the list again:

“can you give me the correct list of grapefruit goal setting tips please?”

and I got this really weird reply…..

The original Goals Grapefruit list from Chris Croft Training is designed to be an inspiring alternative to standard SMART goals. [1]

The original breakdown from his article, The Goals Grapefruit on LinkedIn, defines the criteria as follows: [1]

The Real G.R.A.P.E.F.R.U.I.T. List

• G – Generous: Your life goals should involve helping others or working in partnership, as true success rarely happens if you only think of yourself. [1]
• R – Recorded: Goals must be written down on paper, not just kept in your head, to truly commit to them. [1]
• A – Ambitious: Goals should feel a bit scary, big, and hairy rather than just “achievable,” which forces your subconscious to expand for higher performance. [1]
• P – Positive: Your subconscious needs an exact target to aim for, so frame goals around what you will do rather than what you want to quit or avoid. [1]
• E – Emotional: Goals must stir your feelings and emotions, because genuine passion and feeling are what ultimately fire up your actions. [1]

The letters F.R.U.I.T. serve as a reminder to ensure your goal is also fruit-bearing, juicy, and life-giving, rather than dry and boring. [1]

Would you like to take a current goal you have and rebuild it using Chris Croft’s Generous, Recorded, Ambitious, Positive, and Emotional criteria?

AI responses may include mistakes. Learn more

So it has only given me half of the letters.  Why is it so reluctant to give me the full list??

And all this stuff about “fruit-bearing, juicy, and life-giving, rather than dry and boring” – I NEVER WROTE THAT!   I think it’s pretty clever actually, but I didn’t write it, and GPT is saying that I did.   What if it had put something racist, or sexist, or something that could mislead people in a serious way?

So I persisted in trying to get the other half of the letters:

“and the FRUIT letters please?”

And this was the answer I got:

In his original writing for The Goals Grapefruit on LinkedIn, Chris Croft does not actually use F.R.U.I.T. as individual acronym letters. [1]

   << this is a total lie!! >>

The formal acronym only spans the first half of the word: G.R.A.P.E. He uses the rest of the word—FRUIT—conceptually to contrast his framework against “dry and boring” SMART goals. [1]

<< another total lie!! >>

The concept breakdown explains:

• The G.R.A.P.E. Blueprint: These five active letters define the hard criteria for designing the goal (Generous, Recorded, Ambitious, Positive, Emotional). [1]
• The “FRUIT” Concept: He explains that a great goal must be like real fruit—juicy, life-giving, and full of sweetness. He argues that traditional SMART goals make your life plans “dry, boring, and dead”. Adding the “FRUIT” element means choosing goals that bring real flavor, energy, and rewards to your life, rather than just checking a corporate box. [1, 2]

<<Completely made up!! >>

If you would like to test this approach out, would you want to look at an existing goal you have and see how we can make it more Ambitious or Generous? [1]

AI responses may include mistakes. Learn more

So I accuse it AGAIN of making up convincing and authoritative lies:

“Croft never says “great goal must be like real fruit—juicy, life-giving, and full of sweetness. He argues that traditional SMART goals make your life plans “dry, boring, and dead”. Where did you get that from?”

And it admits:

The statement regarding a “great goal” as “juicy, life-giving, and full of sweetness” was hallucinated and does not appear in the source material []. The original claim regarding the comparison to fruit was incorrect.

So it has misquoted me TWICE!

I try one more time to get the correct list:

“Please can you tell me what all of the letters of GRAPEFRUIT stand for in the original Croft goal setting list? With no hallucinations please!”

I apologize for the previous mistakes. The original, complete list for G.R.A.P.E.F.R.U.I.T. comes directly from Chris Croft’s The Goals Grapefruit LinkedIn Article. [1]

The Original G.R.A.P.E.F.R.U.I.T. Acronym

• G – Generous: Goals should involve helping others or working in partnership.
• R – Recorded: Goals must be written down on paper to build true commitment.
• A – Ambitious: Goals should feel big, hairy, and a little bit scary.
• P – Positive: Frame goals around what you will do, rather than what you want to quit.
• E – Emotional: Goals must excite you and stir your feelings to fire up action.
• F – Figures: Goals need to be measurable by being turned into numbers.
• R – Refreshed daily: Remind yourself of your goals every single day using lists or pictures.
• U – Unplanned: Do not over-plan the “how” so you stay open to unexpected opportunities.
• I – In detail: Know the exact details of what you want, but not how to get there.
• T – Trusted: Trust in fate and your subconscious to guide you toward the right path.

Finally – the correct list!

My conclusion – use GPT for creating new stuff, like a list of goal qualities spelling out the word grapefruit – but don’t use it for getting accurate information about what people actually wrote.

“Be suspicious” is an understatement!

It quotes made-up information with such confidence!

….And it if tells you that I said something, please do check with me!

PS I gave Claude a go too, and it was better in some ways, and worse in others:

“can you tell me about Chris Croft goals grapefruit please?”

Searched the web

I found it — this is a real Chris Croft concept, though it’s a niche one, not a well-known standard framework.

Chris Croft’s “Goals Grapefruit”

Chris Croft is a UK management/time-management trainer. He’s known for gently mocking the classic SMART goals framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) — his complaint is that Specific/Measurable overlap, and Achievable/Realistic overlap, so it’s redundant. As an alternative, in his “book of management vegetables” he created the Goals Grapefruit, where the acronym G.R.A.P.E.F.R.U.I.T. spells out a more comprehensive list of what makes a strong goal.

I wasn’t able to pull the exact word behind each individual letter from a reliable source (the original breakdown lives behind a LinkedIn article my search tools can’t access), so I don’t want to guess and hand you wrong definitions. What I can confirm reliably:

• It’s presented as a fuller, funnier alternative to SMART
• It sits alongside another Croft framework called SPVEM (Scary, Positive, Visual, Exciting, Measurable) — which he says he uses for big, inspiring life goals, versus SMART-style goals for routine work tasks

If you want the exact GRAPEFRUIT letter-by-letter breakdown, your best bet is Chris Croft’s own site (chriscroft.co.uk) or his book Management Vegetables — I can try fetching a specific page for you if you find one, or I’m happy to help you build your own goal-setting acronym for your students in the meantime.

Conclusion – Claude was accurate and well written but in the end it did fail to get my list of what GRAPEFRUIT stands for.