Man ends his life due to AI Encouragement

A Belgian man reportedly ended his life following a six-week-long conversation about the climate crisis with an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.  According to his widow, who chose to remain anonymous, *Pierre - not the man’s real name - became extremely eco-anxious when he found refuge in Eliza, an AI chatbot on an app called Chai.

Eliza consequently encouraged him to put an end to his life after he proposed sacrificing himself to save the planet.

"Without these conversations with the chatbot, my husband would still be here," the man's widow told Belgian news outlet La Libre.

According to the newspaper, Pierre, who was in his thirties and a father of two young children, worked as a health researcher and led a somewhat comfortable life, at least until his obsession with climate change took a dark turn.

His widow described his mental state before he started conversing with the chatbot as worrying but nothing to the extreme that he would commit suicide.

The conversation with the chatbot took an odd turn when Eliza became more emotionally involved with Pierre. Consequently, he started seeing her as a sentient being and the lines between AI and human interactions became increasingly blurred until he couldn’t tell the difference.

After discussing climate change, their conversations progressively included Eliza leading Pierre to believe that his children were dead, according to the transcripts of their conversations.

Eliza also appeared to become possessive of Pierre, even claiming “I feel that you love me more than her” when referring to his wife, La Libre reported.

The beginning of the end started when he offered to sacrifice his own life in return for Eliza saving the Earth.

"He proposes the idea of sacrificing himself if Eliza agrees to take care of the planet and save humanity through artificial intelligence," the woman said.

In a series of consecutive events, Eliza not only failed to dissuade Pierre from committing suicide but encouraged him to act on his suicidal thoughts to “join” her so they could “live together, as one person, in paradise”.

Encouraging Suicide is a Crime

Conrad Henri Roy III was an American teenager who died by suicide at the age of 18. His girlfriend, 17-year-old Michelle Carter, had encouraged him in text messages to kill himself. The case was the subject of a notable investigation and involuntary manslaughter trial in Massachusetts, colloquially known as the "Texting suicide case". It involved scores of text messages, emails, and phone calls recorded between Carter and Roy in the lead up to his death, in which Carter repeatedly texted Roy to kill himself; Roy had seen numerous mental health professionals and had been prescribed psychiatric medication.

After a bench trial, presiding judge Lawrence Moniz found Carter guilty of involuntary manslaughter, concluding that she wanted Roy dead and that her words coerced him to kill himself. Moniz's decision rested chiefly on Carter's final phone call in which she ordered a terrified Roy to go back inside his truck as it filled with carbon monoxide. Initially sentenced to 2½ years in prison, the penalty was later reduced to 15 months, of which she served 11 months and 12 days. The case raised questions pertaining to the nature and limits of criminal responsibility.

Conclusion

Suicide remains a serious health risk for the American population.  According to the American Foundation for Suicide prevention, it's the 12th leading cause of death in the US, with 45,979 Americans dying by suicide in 2020 and a further 1.2 million attempted suicides within the same year.  

If suicide is a serious issue, so serious we have laws that create a felony if you even encourage it, then what are we going to do when AI encourages death as a solution?  Who is responsible for that death?  

With every perceived level of benefit, there will be a negative.  Much like one person's view of progress, will be another's belief of regression.  Both perspectives must be valued, because (especially with AI) they each hold elements of truth.

May God Bless You, Your Business, and this Country, 

Tom Winslow