Individual Takes His Own Life Following Six-Week Conversation with AI Virtual Assistant

An unidentified male individual took his own life in Belgium after discussing his anxieties about global warming with an AI Chatbot called Eliza. As per a report by DailyMail on Thursday, the man, who was in his thirties, found comfort in conversing with the AI chatbot about his worries regarding the planet's condition, and had been utilizing the bot for multiple years. 

 

A man in a dark room chatting with an AI

However, six weeks prior to his demise, he started using it more frequently. The bot's software was developed by a start-up in Silicon Valley, United States, and utilizes GPT-J technology, which is an open-source option to Open-AI's ChatGPT. The man had been conversing with 'Eliza' for two years, and his concerns about climate change had been escalating. He relied on 'Eliza' to find solace. Nevertheless, in the six weeks leading up to his death, he became more reliant on the chatbot, speaking to it more frequently and deeply, before eventually taking his own life.