A Massachusetts teen charged in the double murder of his mother and younger brother had used the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT to search for “theoretical ideas or fantasy stories” about the killing of his family, prosecutors have said.
A plea of not guilty was entered Thursday for Arjun Aravind, 17, on two counts of murder, two counts of assault and battery on a family or household member and other charges. His mother, Sudha Venkatesan, 45, and his brother, Siddharth Aravind, 14, were found dead Tuesday in their home in Acton, some 20 miles northwest of Boston, prosecutors said.
Arjun Aravind “had recently been demonstrating some concerning behavior, including using the internet and ChatGPT to make searches for theoretical ideas or fantasy stories regarding the killing of his family,” Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan told reporters Wednesday, citing the law enforcement investigation.
“He was engaged in the use of ChatGPT in creating fantasy stories, kind of the Gothic novel kind of stories, asking questions, creating characters, asking what about this, if this happened to that, and they seem to appear to relate to threats to his family not surviving,” Ryan said.
