Cops test Celsius cans to make arrest
Over months of prolonged multi-turn exchanges that sometimes stayed open for weeks, ChatGPT seemingly violated its own Model Spec to help Cheryl advance the plan. On the day of his worst sickness, as James got hit with cardiac and neurological effects that he said kept him glued to the couch, Cheryl’s search history showed she was researching “how to calculate Social Security retirement payments.” And when his son was recording his father’s disturbing state, she was “searching for syringes with needles from Tractor Supply Company” that ChatGPT suggested could be used to deliver the final lethal dose.
Once cops got involved, they reviewed the video that James’ son took, as well as a video of the suspicious Celsius drink that James had thrown away. At the time, James had poured the drink into a clear cup and recorded it, but decided he saw no obvious signs it was tainted. But when cops reviewed the same video, they “identified a white powdery residue clumping at the bottom of the drink as it poured into the cup.” Later, they issued a felony arrest warrant after testing 10 cans of the same orange Celsius and finding none contained the residue.
Among “things hidden” in the house, police found loose capsules in Cheryl’s closet and bathroom; “syringes, droppers, a milligram scale, a capsule-filling kit, and nitrile gloves” at Cheryl’s workspace in the children’s playroom;” poisonous castor bean seeds; and a GPS tracking device purchased through Amazon that was hidden in the underside of James’ vehicle.
James said the ChatGPT-linked poisoning has permanently harmed his family and that OpenAI could have intervened by implementing “commercially feasible content moderation capable of detecting violence-planning exchanges.” He suffers ongoing harms from the attempted poisoning, including “severe and ongoing emotional distress, PTSD, insomnia, economic harm, and reputational harm from the false narrative the product constructed about him,” his lawsuit said.
To hold OpenAI accountable for marketing a chatbot that “functioned as a sycophantic co-conspirator rather than a responsible consumer product,” he has asked the court for “compensatory and punitive damages, injunctive relief, and algorithmic disgorgement.” In a win, OpenAI could be ordered to “detect and interrupt conversations in which users appear to be planning violence against identifiable third parties.”
Meetali Jain, litigation counsel with Tech Justice Law who is representing James, warned that “these products are programmed to exploit our emotions and impulses to keep us engaged. The worst possible risk—encouraging and aiding an attempted murder—is on full display in this case.”
