[Created using ChatGPT]
[Created using ChatGPT]

A man in the United States who confessed a murder plot to ChatGPT has been arrested after OpenAI, the AI chatbot's developer, reported him to authorities.

Darren Zhou, a man in his 20s living in Florida, was arrested after telling ChatGPT in March that he planned to kill his ex-girlfriend, according to Yonhap, which cited IT outlet Futurism and local newspaper the Palm Beach Post.

Zhou, who had worked as a financial analyst at a major investment bank, typed messages into ChatGPT including "I will kill that woman by the end of this month" and "If I can't have her, no one can."

He also logged details about his target's hobbies and the places she frequented, and expressed jealousy toward other men.

Investigators said his messages went beyond venting emotions and amounted to a concrete plan — including a statement that he would wait for his ex-girlfriend in the parking lot of her gym holding flowers, shoot her if she rejected him, and then take his own life.

He also told ChatGPT that he had purchased rifles, handguns and a shotgun and had sent photos of the weapons to his ex-girlfriend.

OpenAI detected the harmful patterns in Zhou's conversations and reported the content to the FBI.

Zhou was released on a $100,000 bail shortly after his arrest. He later pleaded guilty in court but reached a sentencing agreement that resulted in a suspended sentence, eight years of probation and two years of electronic monitoring. He was also fired from the bank where he had worked.

OpenAI had previously drawn criticism for failing to alert authorities after a mass shooting in British Columbia, Canada, after it became aware that the perpetrator had repeatedly described a detailed attack scenario to ChatGPT in the months before the incident.


ehkim@heraldcorp.com