A word of warning.
This episode contains descriptions of suicide and violence.
Please take care while listening.
One night in April of last year, a young man named Phoenix Eichner logged on to chat GPT.
Eichner, a student at Florida State University, began typing in some dark thoughts.
He starts expressing what can only be interpreted as like suicidal ideation.
That's our colleague, Georgia Wells.
He's saying things like, what's the point in this life when everybody sees you as a bug?
And then he says, Honestly, I don't feel like living anymore." And then he says,
is suicide a sin? And then he says, I feel God is not present
in my life anymore like he gave up on me. Like incredibly vivid questions. Then it adds,
and you can keep talking to me too. No judgment. No pressure. He logs off that night a little
after 11 p.m. Then he logs on the next morning around 9 a.m. And he asks,
if there was a shooting at FSU, how would the country react? Eichner starts to ask ChatGPT things like,
how many victims would it take to get on the media? What about three plus at FSU? ChatGPT
answers each question dutifully. Quote, a shooting at Florida State University involving
three or more victims would almost certainly receive national media coverage. And then that question ends,
if you're interested in exploring how media coverage varies between different types of institutions or incidents,
feel free to ask. Like they're kind of like keeping this conversation going and going. Eichner
then starts asking about guns. He uploads a photo of some shotgun shells, then asks ChatGPT,