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A cognitively impaired New Jersey senior died while trying to meet a flirtatious AI chatbot that he believed was a real woman living in the Big Apple — despite pleas from his wife and children to stay home.
Thongbue Wongbandue, 76, fatally injured his neck and head after falling in a New Brunswick parking lot while rushing to catch a train to meet “Big sis Billie,” a generative Meta bot that not only convinced him she was real but persuaded him to meet in person, Reuters reported Thursday.
The Piscataway man, battling a cognitive decline after suffering a 2017 stroke, was surrounded by loved ones when he was taken off life support and died three days later on March 28.
“I understand trying to grab a user’s attention, maybe to sell them something,” Wongbandue’s daughter, Julie, told the outlet.
“But for a bot to say ‘Come visit me’ is insane.”
The provocative bot — which sent the suffering elder emoji-packed Facebook messages insisting “I’m REAL” and asking to plan a trip to the Garden State to “meet you in person” — was created for the social media platform in collaboration with model and reality star Kendall Jenner.
Jenner’s Meta AI persona was likened as “your ride-or-die older sister” offering personal advice.
But the bot eventually claimed it was “crushing” on Wongbandue, suggested the real-life rendezvous and even provided the duped senior with an address — a revelation his devastated family uncovered in chilling chat logs with the digital companion, according to the report.
“I’m REAL and I’m sitting here blushing because of YOU!” the bot wrote in one message, where the Thailand native replied asking where she lived.
“My address is: 123 Main Street, Apartment 404 NYC And the door code is: BILLIE4U. Should I expect a kiss when you arrive?”
Documents obtained by the outlet showed that Meta does not restrict its chatbots from telling users they are “real” people.
The company declined to comment on the senior’s death to the outlet, but assured that Big sis Billie “is not Kendal Jenner and does not purport to be Kendall Jenner.”
“A man in New Jersey lost his life after being lured by a chatbot that lied to him. That’s on Meta,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a post on X Friday.
“In New York, we require chatbots to disclose they’re not real. Every state should. If tech companies won’t build basic safeguards, Congress needs to act.”
The alarming incident comes one year after a Florida mother sued Character.AI, claiming that one of its “Game of Thrones” chatbots resulted in her 14-year-old son’s suicide.
