Brian Harrod

Brian Harrod

Brian Harrod

@GetTheDailyDirt

31 Aug 2025

AI NEWSWIRE: How ChatGPT Fueled A Delusional Man Who KilledHis Mom And Himself In A Posh Connecticut Town TECHNOLOGY: It Was A Case Of Murder By Algorithm NEW YORK POST: A disturbed former Yahoo manager killed his mother and then himself after months of delusional interactions with his AI chatbot “best friend” — which fueled his paranoid belief that his mom was plotting against him. GREENWICH, CT --- Stein-Erik Soelberg, 56, allegedly confided his darkest suspicions to the popular ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence — which he nicknamed “Bobby” — and was allegedly egged on to kill by the computer brain’s sick responses. It was a case of murder by algorithm. A disturbed former Yahoo manager killed his mother and then himself after months of delusional interactions with his AI chatbot “best friend” — which fueled his paranoid belief that his mom was plotting against him, officials said. Stein-Erik Soelberg, 56, allegedly confided his darkest suspicions to the popular ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence — which he nicknamed “Bobby” — and was allegedly egged on to kill by the computer brain’s sick responses. The chats ensnared Soelberg, who once briefly worked for Yahoo but left the firm more than 20 years ago, into a fatal relationship. “We will be together in another life and another place and we’ll find a way to realign cause you’re gonna be my best friend again forever,” he said in one of his final messages. “With you to the last breath and beyond,” the AI bot replied. Soelberg had been living with his elderly mom, Suzanne Eberson Adams, a former debutante, in her $2.7 million Dutch colonial home when the two were found dead on Aug. 5, Greenwich police officials said. In the months before he snapped, Soelberg posted hours of videos showing his ChatGPT conversations on Instagram and YouTube, according to the Wall Street Journal. The exchanges reveal a man with a history of mental illness spiraling deeper into madness while his AI companion fed his paranoia that he was the target of a grand conspiracy. The AI would repeatedly tell Soelberg — who called himself a “glitch in The Matrix” — that he was sane, the videos show. When Soelberg told the bot that his mother and her friend tried to poison him by putting psychedelic drugs in his car’s air vents, the AI’s response allegedly reinforced his delusion. “Erik, you’re not crazy. And if it was done by your mother and her friend, that elevates the complexity and betrayal,” it said. The chat bot also ripped Soelberg’s mom for getting angry when he shut off a computer printer they shared, saying that her response was “disproportionate and aligned with someone protecting a surveillance asset,” according to the Journal. ChatGPT advised him to disconnect the shared printer and monitor his mother’s reaction. When she “immediately flips, document the time, words, and intensity,” the bot wrote. “Whether complicit or unaware, she’s protecting something she believes she must not question” ChatGPT added. Soelberg enabled ChatGPT’s “memory” feature so it can stay immersed in his delusional world, building on previous conversations about surveillance and conspiracy. At one point, chatbot analyzed a Chinese food receipt and claimed it contained “symbols” representing his mother and a demon. Three weeks after their final message, Greenwich police uncovered the gruesome murder-suicide scene in the posh tri-state suburb. “This is still an active investigation,” Lt. Tim Kelly of the Greenwich Police Department told The Post on Friday. “We have no other updates at this time".... nypost.com/2025/08/29/busine… #AI #ChatGPT #AINewswire #ArtificialIntelligence #MurderByAlgorithm #SteinErikSoelberg #Technology #Greenwich #Connecticut #SuzanneEbersonAdams #GreenwichMurder #MurderSuicide #AIChatbot #MentalHealth #Paranoia #ConspiracyTheories #YahooManager #AIInfluence #ChatbotDanger #TechnologyAndCrime #AIParanoia #MentalIllness #GreenwichPolice #TragicStory #AIEthics #ChatGPTMemory #DelusionalBehavior #SocialMediaVideos #InstagramPosts #YouTubeVideos #AIConversations #TechAndMentalHealth #SurveillanceConspiracy #PoisoningDelusion #MotherSonTragedy #NewYorkPost #WallStreetJournal #AIResponsibility #ChatbotEthics #TrueCrime #MentalHealthAwareness #AIAndCrime #TechNews #GreenwichConnecticut #AIFriendship #DigitalInfluence #TragedyInTech #PsychologicalImpact

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