diff --git a/pilot/utils/llm_connection.py b/pilot/utils/llm_connection.py
index c563cec..4fa77cc 100644
--- a/pilot/utils/llm_connection.py
+++ b/pilot/utils/llm_connection.py
@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@ def create_gpt_chat_completion(messages: List[dict], req_type, project,
         logger.error(f'The request to {os.getenv("ENDPOINT")} API failed: %s', e)
         print(f'The request to {os.getenv("ENDPOINT")} API failed. Here is the error message:')
         print(e)
+        return {}   # https://github.com/Pythagora-io/gpt-pilot/issues/130 - may need to revisit how we handle this
 
 
 def delete_last_n_lines(n):