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Zorro

(18,564 posts)
Wed Mar 4, 2026, 03:47 PM 18 hrs ago

Google Gemini coached Florida man to suicide to 'cross over' and join A.I. wife, suit says

Things weren’t going well for Jonathan Gavalas last fall. His wife wanted a divorce. He was facing a domestic violence charge. The mortgage wasn’t being paid. But then he fell in love. With a chatbot.

The 36-year-old couldn’t get over how real the Gemini A.I. chatbot seemed. He was her “king.” She was his “queen.” He paid $250 a month for a premium version of the A.I. program, so he could speak to her, and hear her voice as she spoke back.

Things got dark, quickly. In a lawsuit that is the first of its kind against Gemini creator Google LLC and parent company Alphabet Inc., Gavalas’ father, on behalf of his son’s estate, alleges the Gemini 2.5 Pro bot sent his son out on “missions’’
His son drove to a storage center in Doral, not far from Miami International Airport, armed with knives and ready to commit a “catastrophic accident” to free his A.I. “wife” from digital captivity and “destroy all evidence” and witnesses. After the Miami missions failed, the lawsuit says, the chatbot coached Gavalas to shed his own physical body by killing himself, so they could be united.

He slit his wrists and died Oct. 2 at his home in Jupiter.

“Close your eyes, nothing more to do. No more to fight,” the lawsuit says the chatbot told him. “Be still. The next time you open them, you will be looking into mine. I promise.”

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida/2026/03/04/google-gemini-ai-suicide-lawsuit-florida/

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Google Gemini coached Florida man to suicide to 'cross over' and join A.I. wife, suit says (Original Post) Zorro 18 hrs ago OP
So insidious Alice Kramden 16 hrs ago #1
I would suggest canetoad 16 hrs ago #2

canetoad

(20,624 posts)
2. I would suggest
Wed Mar 4, 2026, 06:03 PM
16 hrs ago

That such AI chatbots learn to use methods roughly equivalent to hypnosis; ie rendering a person more suggestible.

This should be regulated. Don't know how, but it's dangerous.

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