Man Commits Suicide Over Climate Change After Being Encouraged To By AI Chatbot

This takes the term or concept of ecogrief to a new level.

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.

The man involved, Pierre, and ELIZA developed a relationship where the two literally became emotionally involved and he decided to end his life so, according to Euronews, he could join ELIZA in paradise. Worst of all, ELIZA ended up encouraging Pierre to commit suicide even after she tried to dissuade him.

This takes place even though the company behind ELIZA said that they had put safeguards in place to prevent their product from encouraging users to commit suicide. Very sad that Pierre’s children will grow up without a father and this should not only speak to the risks of artificial intelligence but that the depression people can develop when buying into the doom-and-gloom over the so-called climate crisis can result in tragedies like this.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay