South Korean prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a woman accused of killing two men with drug-spiked drinks after allegedly using ChatGPT to research potentially fatal combinations of medication and alcohol.
Kim So-young is accused of giving benzodiazepine-laced beverages to three men between December 2025 and February 2026, according to South Korean media. Two of the men died and another survived after spending two days in a coma. She also faces allegations of injuring three other men in similar circumstances.
At the final hearing of her trial on Tuesday, prosecutors asked the Seoul Northern District Court to impose a death sentence.
Kim denies intending to kill the men, maintaining that she drugged them to prevent unwanted physical contact. Investigators, however, say evidence recovered from her phone includes ChatGPT conversations in which she asked about mixing sleeping medication with alcohol, dangerous quantities and whether particular combinations could be fatal.
Authorities allege that after one victim survived, Kim made further enquiries through ChatGPT about dosage and risks before subsequently increasing the quantity of drugs used. Prosecutors are seeking to rely on those conversations as evidence that she understood the potentially deadly consequences of her actions.
The prosecution comes amid heightened scrutiny of the role AI chatbots can play when people contemplating violence use them to obtain information. Other recent criminal cases in the United States and Canada have involved offenders or suspects who reportedly interacted with ChatGPT before committing violent acts.
OpenAI has rejected claims that ChatGPT should be held responsible for crimes committed by users. The company says it prohibits assistance intended to facilitate violence and has continued strengthening safeguards, enforcement measures and procedures for dealing with potentially dangerous activity.
Image credit: Emilio Vittorisio
