Kim So-young, convicted in the "Gangbuk motel serial murder" case. [Instagram, Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office]
Kim So-young, convicted in the "Gangbuk motel serial murder" case. [Instagram, Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office]

Kim So-young, 20, was sentenced to life in prison for the "Gangbuk motel serial murder" case, in which she gave men drug-laced drinks that killed them. She repeatedly asked ChatGPT, before and after her crimes, whether the drugs could be lethal and whether police were investigating her. She also asked about the severity of the punishment she might face.

According to an SBS report, a first-instance ruling made public Tuesday detailed the conversations Kim had with ChatGPT before and after her crimes. The court treated the chat records as key evidence that Kim was aware her victims could die from the drugs.

In December last year, after a man who had drunk one of her drug-laced beverages lost consciousness and was taken to a hospital, Kim asked ChatGPT, "Will the antidepressants and sleeping pills show up in a drug test?"

When the man regained consciousness and said he intended to report the incident to police, Kim turned to ChatGPT again. She asked questions along the lines of, "I've been prescribed sleeping pills and antidepressants before and have committed a lot of crimes -- won't they suspect me?" She also asked, "I'm anxious the police might mistakenly think I drugged him."

In January this year, before meeting another victim, Kim asked ChatGPT, "Can someone die from taking too many sleeping pills?" ChatGPT replied, "In the worst case, it could be fatal."

Kim also asked what sentence she could face if charged with involuntary manslaughter or abandonment resulting in death. On the day she asked that question, Kim left an unconscious victim behind at the motel and fled the scene alone. The victim ultimately died.

Lee Woong-hyuk, a professor of police administration at Konkuk University, told SBS, "The defendant's inner intentions have been accumulating in ChatGPT like a mirror, like a lake," adding that "it played a very important role in proving her conditional intent."

The 14th Criminal Division of the Seoul Northern District Court, led by Presiding Judge Oh Byung-hee, ruled on Aug. 27. The court said Kim had come to recognize, through ChatGPT and other means, the conditions under which the drugs could cause death, and found that she had intent to kill.

At her final hearing, Kim claimed she had used the drugs to defend herself, citing a past memory of having been sexually assaulted by a man. Prosecutors, however, sought the death penalty. The first-instance court sentenced her to life in prison and ordered her to wear an electronic location-tracking device for 30 years.

Kim appealed the ruling on Aug. 28, the day after sentencing, and prosecutors also appealed a week later, on Sept. 4.


betterj@heraldcorp.com