13-Year-Old arrested in US for asking ChatGPT how to kill friend

A teenage student in Florida has been recently arrested for allegedly asking OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT, “how to kill my friend.” The 13-year-old student asked the question to the AI chatbot on a school device during class, which was logged by Google through a monitoring system used on school computers and swiftly flagged to school authorities for review.

According to a report by a US news channel WFLA, the sheriff’s office stated a school resource deputy at Southwestern Middle School in Deland received the Google alert informing about the query made by the student to ChatGPT.

Upon being informed about the incident, police rushed to the spot and detained the student from Southwestern Middle School.

‘Was just trolling a friend’

The student reportedly said during interrogation that he was “just trolling a friend”. However, officials did not take the matter lightly in view of the history of school violence in the US and consequently arrested the boy.

“Another ‘joke’ that created an emergency on campus,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement, adding, “Parents, please talk to your kids so they don’t make the same mistake.”

Also Read: OpenAI's Sam Altman grilled over whistleblower death: 'He was like a friend'

Lawsuit against OpenAI

Earlier, in April, a 16-year-old boy in California took his own life after allegedly being isolated due to ChatGPT, which helped him plan his suicide.

Following the incident, his parents sued OpenAI, alleging that the AI chatbot, instead of helping him get human help, supported his thoughts.

The boy’s parents reportedly stated that he started using ChatGPT in the fall of 2024. Initially, his use of ChatGPT was confined to exploring his hobbies like music, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Japanese fantasy comics, and to ask about colleges and career paths.

But within a few months, his thoughts started getting darker, and he started expressing more negative emotions and darker feelings.

Also Read: Parents sue OpenAI, Sam Altman, allege ChatGPT enabled son’s suicide

OpenAI announces parental controls

Following the lawsuit, OpenAI announced last month that it would introduce parental controls for ChatGPT on the web and mobile, reported Reuters.

“The controls let parents and teenagers opt in for stronger safeguards by linking their accounts, where one party sends an invitation and parental controls activate only if the other accepts, the company said,” stated the report.