OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, reported a 25-year-old man in Florida to the FBI after he confided his plans to rape and murder his ex-girlfriend to ChatGPT.
"I'm going to kill her at the end of this month," Darren Zhou, 25, of Florida, told ChatGPT, whose text messages are on file in court records. "If I can't have her, no one can have her."
Investigators said Zhou was a fired strategy analyst for a multinational bank who came to ChatGPT in March to confide in him about his recent breakup with his girlfriend.
He talked about her interests, places she frequented, jealousy of the men around her, and his desire to reconnect.
The FBI said Zhou's messages quickly turned to threats of rape, murder and murder-suicide.
In May, the FBI turned over more than two months of Zhou's chat logs with ChatGPT to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. At this point, Zhou's target of harm expanded to include the girl's family.
The deputy sheriff reviewed the diary and said these were not "vague emotional outbursts" but showed a carefully planned and prepared case.
Officers made contact with the girl, 21 years old. She said she broke up with Zhou because of his "erratic, jealous and controlling behavior", and broke up over the phone because she was afraid of his reaction.
Since the breakup, she said Zhou continuously called, texted and posted messages on social networks, asking about comments a man had left on her TikTok video. He blamed her for ending the relationship quickly.
She took screenshots of the messages Zhou sent, many of which were harassing, insulting, sexually explicit and threatening.
Based on the messages Zhou sent to ChatGPT and to his ex, police arrested him in May and released him on $100,000 bail.
In June, Zhou was indicted on charges of aggravated harassment, written death threats and unauthorized use of a cell phone, crimes that carry a prison sentence of up to 25 years.
Zhou pleaded guilty to all three charges on August 13 after reaching a plea agreement and avoiding prison time.
The judge, when handing down the sentence, said he only accepted the deal because Zhou's ex-girlfriend had agreed.
As part of the agreement, the judge deferred sentencing and sentenced Zhou to eight years of probation, during which he must comply with a series of restrictions.
OpenAI's policy states that certain people may have their interactions on ChatGPT reviewed when they are found to have intended to cause harm to others. In serious cases, OpenAI can send information to law enforcement.
ChatGPT conversations have become evidence in many lawsuits, but very few cases of user activity have been reported to the police by this company. This is one of the rare cases, possibly the first recorded.
