OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, reported a 25-year-old South Palm Beach man to the FBI after he shared detailed plans to rape and murder his ex-girlfriend.
"I'm gonna kill her by the end of this month," Darren Zhou told the chatbot, his messages preserved in court records. "If I can't have her then nobody can."
Investigators say Zhou, a financial analyst with Goldman Sachs in West Palm Beach, turned to ChatGPT in March to discuss his recent breakup with a girlfriend of six months. He recounted her hobbies, the places she frequented, his jealousy of the men around her and his desire to get back together.
Investigators say the messages quickly turned to threats of rape, murder and murder-suicide. Zhou told ChatGPT he planned to wait in the parking
lot of the woman's gym with flowers in hand. If she rejected his offering, Zhou said he would "draw a gun, kill her, then shoot myself."
In another conversation, he said he would "rape her with the gun too." He wrote in subsequent messages that he planned to force her at gunpoint to drive to his home in South Palm Beach, where he would sexually assault her and hold her hostage. If police arrived to save her, he said he would "shoot her repeatedly" and before turning the gun on himself.
He told the chatbot he'd bought an AR-15 style rifle, a Glock handgun and a 12-gauge shotgun, and that he'd sent his girlfriend photos of his guns, zip ties and latex gloves.
"I texted her I was gonna rape her tonight," he told the AI.
Federal agents turned over two months of Zhou's chat logs to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office in May, by which point Zhou's targets had grown to include the young woman's family. A deputy who reviewed the messages said they weren't "vague emotional outbursts" nor a "single impulsive remark," but instead showed a pattern of rehearsal and planning.
Girlfriend supplied deputies with violent texts from ex
Deputies performed a welfare check on the girlfriend, a 21-year-old from Lake Worth Beach. She said she'd broken up with Zhou over his "erratic, jealous and controlling behavior," and did so over the phone because she feared how he would react.
Since the breakup, the woman said Zhou dogged her with calls, texts and social-media messages, pressing her about comments that a man left on her TikTok videos. He accused her of moving on quickly and ignored her repeated requests that he not contact her again.
She'd blocked him on a Thursday, and by Friday, he texted from a different number, apologizing for overwhelming her. He did the same through Instagram, where she soon blocked him, too.
Investigators say Zhou continued to call and text his ex from various app-generated phone numbers. She took screenshots of the messages, many of which were harassing, insulting, sexual and threatening.
"Can't wait to see you later tonight ;)," he texted on her 21st birthday. "Can't wait to smell you."
One message, sent while she was in a West Palm Beach gym, contained the name of the gym and nothing more. Others held lewd photos and the promise of rape. The woman told deputies her lingering feelings for Zhou, along with her "misguided hope" that he would stop harassing her if she ignored him long enough, had prevented her from reporting him.
While she was screenshotting messages and blocking their sender, Zhou was confiding again in ChatGPT: "She hasn't received any of the threats etc."
Defense attorney says 'he's not a violent person'
Armed with Zhou's messages to the AI and to his ex, deputies arrested him in May. He spent two days in the Palm Beach County jail before posting $100,000 bail.
Assistant State Attorney Ana Cuskova charged him in June with aggravated stalking, written threats to kill and illegal use of a cell phone, felonies punishable by up to 25 years in prison. Zhou pleaded guilty to all three on Aug. 13 after negotiating a deal with Cuskova that spared him both from prison and the lifelong label as a felon.
Circuit Judge Scott Suskauer, speaking from the bench, said he only accepted the deal because Zhou's ex-girlfriend had approved it. In accordance with the agreement, the judge withheld adjudication and sentenced Zhou to eight years of probation, during which he must abide by a slew of restrictions.
Zhou will be outfitted with an ankle monitor for the first two years of his probation. He must also complete a batterer's intervention program, undergo a mental health evaluation, and avoid drugs, alcohol, guns and contact with his ex. Failure to do so could send him back to court.
Asked why prosecutors agreed to spare the financial analyst a felony conviction, State Attorney spokesperson Marc Freeman pointed to the many factors that can influence any case’s outcome: strength of evidence, victim cooperation, prior criminal history and statutory limitations.
He did not specify which factor drove the resolution in Zhou's case but said the decision was made by experienced prosecutors. Zhou's attorney, Steven Bell, called it an "extremely fair and just resolution."
He pointed to the fact that Zhou graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern University in Boston and had no prior criminal record. He also didn't own firearms, Bell said, despite his messages suggesting otherwise.
"He's not a violent person. He is not a bad person," Bell said. "He went through just a very difficult mental health episode and he's doing unbelievable now."
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. Reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: ChatGPT reported South Palm Beach man's rape and murder threats to FBI
