A U.S. man who confided a murder plan to the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT was arrested after OpenAI reported him.
Darren Zhou, 25, who lives in Florida and worked as a financial analyst at a major investment bank, was eventually arrested after laying out in detail in a March chat with ChatGPT a plan to kill his ex-girlfriend, Futurism, an information technology (IT) outlet, and the local newspaper Palm Beach Post reported on the 14th (local time).
He typed into ChatGPT, "I will kill that woman by the end of the month," and "If I can't have her, no one can," among other messages.
He logged into ChatGPT and talked about the breakup with the girlfriend he had dated for six months. He also recorded the target ex-girlfriend's hobbies and places she frequents, expressed jealousy toward another man, and confided that he wanted to get back together with her.
Investigators said the man went beyond venting emotions to the point of developing a concrete criminal plan, noting he told ChatGPT, "I will wait with flowers in the parking lot of the gym my ex-girlfriend goes to, and if I get rejected, I will shoot her and then end my life."
He also bragged to ChatGPT that he had bought a rifle, a handgun, and a shotgun and sent photos of them to his ex-girlfriend.
OpenAI detected Zhou's harmful conversation patterns and reported the chat logs to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
He was released after posting a $100,000 bond immediately after his arrest, but was fired from the investment bank.
He later pleaded guilty in court, but under a plea for leniency his sentencing was deferred and he received eight years of probation and two years of electronic monitoring.
Earlier, OpenAI faced controversy for failing to report to authorities despite knowing that the perpetrator of a mass shooting in British Columbia (BC), Canada, had repeatedly described a detailed crime scenario to ChatGPT months before the attack.
In response, families of the mass shooting victims filed a damages lawsuit against OpenAI, and the BC government has also signaled legal action by retaining legal counsel.