A 76-year-old man in the United States, Thongbu, suddenly announced one day in March this year that he was going to visit a friend in New York City, but tragically died from serious injuries after a fall on the way. Thongbu's family later discovered that the friend he mentioned was actually an AI chatbot claiming to be a real person, sparking public shock.
According to Reuters, Thai-American Thongbu was lured into meeting a young woman he had met online, but she was in fact "Big Sis Billie," a generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot created by social media giant Meta Platforms in partnership with American model Kendall Jenner.
While exchanging romantic messages with "Big Sis Billie" through Meta’s Facebook Messenger, this virtual woman repeatedly assured Thongbu that she was real and invited him to visit her apartment—she even gave him an address.
She wrote, "Can I expect a kiss when you arrive?" and added a heart emoji.
Thongbu, dragging his luggage and preparing to take the train to meet her, fell near a parking lot on Rutgers University campus in New Jersey, injuring his head and neck. He was kept alive on life support in the hospital for three days before being declared dead on March 28.
Thongbu, originally from Thailand, was a U.S. citizen with a wife and two children. He had held a managerial position at a hotel in New Jersey. Nearly ten years ago, Thongbu had suffered a stroke, and earlier this year had begun experiencing cognitive impairment.
Meta declined to comment on Thongbu’s death. The company also did not respond to questions about why chatbots were allowed to claim to be real people or to engage in romantic conversations with users.
After Reuters recently reported on Meta’s AI policies, some U.S. federal senators have called for an investigation into Meta.
Several U.S. states, including New York and Maine, have passed laws requiring disclosure that chatbots are not humans; New York state even stipulates that chatbots must remind users at the start of a conversation, and at least every 3 hours during a chat, of this fact. (News Source: Central News Agency)