ChatGPT allegedly fuelled former exec’s ‘delusions’ before murder-suicide
Officials say ChatGPT fed a former executive’s ‘delusions’ in the weeks leading up to a horrifying murder-suicide
Ariel Zilber – New York Post
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August 30, 2025 - 7:23AM
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A disturbed former tech executive killed his mother and then himself after months of delusional interactions with an AI chatbot — which fuelled his paranoid belief that his mum was plotting against him, officials said.
New York local 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.
In what is believed to be the first case of its kind, the chatbot allegedly came up with ways for Soelberg to trick the 83-year-old woman — and even spun its own crazed conspiracies by doing things such as finding “symbols” in a Chinese food receipt that it deemed demonic.
The 56-year-old forged a close relationship with the AI, which he named 'Bobby'. Picture: New York Post
The chats ensnared Soelberg, who once worked for Yahoo, 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 mum, Suzanne Eberson Adams, a former debutante, in her $2.7 million Dutch colonial home when the two were found dead on 5 August, 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 spiralling 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.
He believed he was a 'glitch in The Matrix'. Picture: New York Post
The AI allegedly came up with ways for him to trick his 83-year-old mother. Picture: New York Post
The chat bot also ripped Soelberg’s mum 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.
Photos and videos show months of online 'delusions' in the lead-up. Picture: New York Post
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 analysed 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 New York 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.”
This story originally appeared on New York Post and is republished here with permission.
