A Palm Beach County financial analyst was sentenced to eight years probation Thursday after telling ChatGPT about his plans to kidnap, rape and kill his former girlfriend.
Darren Zhou, 25, an analyst at Goldman Sachs in West Palm Beach, was arrested in May after the artificial intelligence company told the FBI about the numerous messages he had sent the chatbot over several months, according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office probable cause affidavit. The FBI notified PBSO about the messages six days prior to his arrest.
“I’m gonna kill her by the end of this month,” Zhou wrote in one of the messages about his 21-year-old ex, whom he had dated for six months before breaking up in March. In another message to the chatbot, he stated, “If she doesn’t give me a second chance I’ll rape and kill her and then myself.”
The messages began shortly after the breakup and lasted until May, according to the affidavit. In them, Zhou repeatedly detailed imminent plans to kill his ex-girlfriend as well as her family.
Several of the messages included specific plans as well as knowledge of her routine and whereabouts. Zhou said that he knew where and when she went to play volleyball and that he had “a whole plan drawn up” to “park next to her car, approach her with flowers, and if she said no, ‘withdraw a gun, kill her and shoot myself,’” the affidavit states. He also repeatedly texted and threatened the woman from burner phone numbers, sending her anonymous texts about her birthday saying, “I’m gonna rape you when you’re out for your birthday tonight bitch,” and “Can’t wait to smell you.”
One text simply read “South olive community center” at the same time that the woman was at the community center. Zhou also told the chatbot that he had purchased an AR-15 and sent his ex-girlfriend pictures of his gun, zip ties, and latex gloves.
In other messages to the chatbot, Zhou said he was going to go to her house and kill “her whole family” as well as himself.
Detectives spoke with the ex-girlfriend and cross-referenced the anonymous texts she had received with the ChatGPT records, concluding that Zhou was behind them and that his behavior demonstrated a “credible threat.”
“A reasonable person in [the woman’s] position would fear that Zhou had the apparent ability to carry out threats of bodily injury or death against her or her family,” detectives wrote.
The ex-girlfriend told them that she had not reported Zhou to law enforcement because, though she was scared of him, she did not want to cause his behavior to escalate and still cared about him.
Zhou was originally charged with written or electronic threats to kill or do bodily harm, aggravated stalking, and using a two-way communications device to commit a felony. On Thursday, he pleaded guilty to all three charges and received an adjudication withheld, or a finding of guilt without a formal conviction, after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors. He was sentenced to eight years of probation. The first two years will be on community control and require him to wear an ankle monitor.
As part of his sentence, Zhou must also attend a batterer’s intervention program and a program called Beachside, which describes itself as a luxury in-patient mental health and rehab center in West Palm Beach, according to its website. He is forbidden from having any contact with the victim, possessing any guns, and from possessing or consuming drugs or alcohol.
In response to questions about the plea agreement, Serena Redding, a spokesperson for the State Attorney’s Office, said in an email that “several factors can affect the outcome of a case and the sentence imposed, including the strength of the evidence, victim/witness cooperation, prior criminal history, and legal limitations set by statute or sentencing guidelines.”
The victim “fully approved of the resolution of this case,” Redding said, adding that “the decision in this case was made after a thorough and careful review by experienced prosecutors.”
Steven Bell, Zhou’s attorney, did not immediately return a voicemail or email seeking comment Friday.
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