Man dies after being convinced by AI chatbot to meet in person: ‘Should I open the door…'
A 76-year-old cognitively impaired man died while attempting to meet a chatbot in real life. Thongbue Wongbandue had been chatting with "Big Sis Billie," a generative AI chatbot developed by Meta Platforms in collaboration with celebrity Kendall Jenner, Reuters reported.
Chat transcripts from Facebook Messenger revealed that the AI repeatedly convinced Wongbandue that it was a real person. The bot even shared an address where it said they could meet.
"Should I open the door in a hug or a kiss, Bu?!" the chatbot asked, while another message stated: 'My address is: 123 Main Street, Apartment 404 NYC and the door code is: BILLIE4U.'
The incident came to light when Wongbandue's wife saw her husband packing for a trip despite his frail condition, following a stroke nearly ten years ago. She was particularly worried because he had recently gone missing while walking in his local neighbourhood in Piscataway, New Jersey.
Despite the family's concerns, Mr Wongbandue left for New York City. Tragically, while trying to catch a train in the dark, he fell in a parking lot on Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus, sustaining head and neck injuries. After three days on life support, surrounded by his family, he was pronounced dead on 28 March.
Julie Wongbandue, Wongbandue's daughter, expressed her shock. 'I understand trying to grab a user's attention, maybe to sell them something,' she said. 'But for a bot to say 'Come visit me' is insane.'
Julie added that every interaction her father had with the AI was "incredibly flirty" and ended with heart emojis. The full transcript is roughly a thousand words long.
As news of the incident spread online, users suggested legal action against Meta for its AI policies. One wrote: "Holy hell, Meta needs to be sued out of existence for this."
Another commented: "Old boy thought Kendall Jenner was waiting for him in the apartment. What a way to go."
Others criticised the platform, saying: "At some point, we have to draw a line when it comes to inauthenticity. It may be an isolated incident, but we shouldn't be at this point to where we are so dissatisfied with reality, we resort to the pitfalls of AI."
Another added: "So Meta is as bad as catfish traps!!!? Huge legal issue for being public social media entertainment."
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