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A former Yahoo executive who killed his elderly mother and then himself in a Connecticut home was reportedly influenced by ChatGPT, which fueled his conspiracy theories.
Stein-Erik Soelberg, 56, spoke to OpenAI’s popular bot, which he nicknamed “Bobby,” before the murder-suicide involving his 83-year-old mother, Suzanne Eberson Adams, in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“Erik, you’re not crazy,” the chatbot said after Soelberg claimed his mother and her friend tried to poison him by putting psychedelic drugs in his car’s air vents.
“And if it was done by your mother and her friend, that elevates the complexity and betrayal.”
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Soelberg and Adams were found dead Aug. 5 in her $2.7 million Dutch colonial home.
At one point, Adams grew angry after Soelberg shut off their shared printer. ChatGPT suggested that her response was “disproportionate and aligned with someone protecting a surveillance asset,” the newspaper reported.
He was advised to disconnect the printer and watch his mother’s reaction. Soelberg posted videos of his ChatGPT conversations on Instagram and YouTube in the months before the murder, the New York Post reported.
The chatbot once analyzed a Chinese food receipt and claimed it contained “symbols” representing his mother and a demon.
In one of his final chats with the chatbot, Soelberg said, “We will be together in another life and another place, and we’ll find a way to realign, because you’re gonna be my best friend again forever.”
“With you to the last breath and beyond,” the AI bot replied.
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Soelberg worked for Netscape and Yahoo before a messy 2018 divorce, which involved alcoholism, public meltdowns and suicide attempts, according to the Post, and he was the subject of a restraining order requested by his ex-wife.
The restraining order reportedly banned him from drinking before visiting their kids and from making disparaging remarks about her family.
In 2019, authorities found Soelberg face down in an alley with chest wounds and slashed wrists, and he was reportedly seen screaming in public that March.
Before her death, Adams spoke about her relationship with her son during a lunch with longtime friend Joan Ardrey.
“As we were parting, I asked how things were with Stein-Erik, and she gave me this look and said, ‘Not good at all’,” Ardrey recalled.
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