James ‘Weston’ Higginbotham's mom says they argued about her ChatGPT use before he vanished, ‘Weston is very anti-AI…’
The mother of Auburn University student James ‘Weston’ Higginbotham, 20, claimed that she and her son had an argument over her use of ChatGPT on their vacation before he vanished. Search-and-rescue volunteers in Japan found James’ body days after he went missing.
James’ mother, Nancy Higginbotham, told CBS news that the use of ChatGPT was “a sore subject” between her and her son, who was a passionate naturalist.
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“I was using a little bit too much ChatGPT. Japan is a country that I’ve had a hard time navigating,” she said. “Weston is very anti-AI because you know he’s into sustainability engineering and AI uses a lot of water and is depleting a lot of water resources.”
James ‘Weston’ Higginbotham’s disappearance and death
James went missing on May 29 after leaving his parents and brother, to explore Kyoto on his own. He had had an argument with his mother over her use of ChatGPT to navigate their trip.
James’ parents used the Life360 app to track his location and saw him getting on a train and visiting various stores. They texted him to ask where he was going, but his location was soon turned off, which his mother said was out of character for him.
James was last seen on CCTV footage walking alone in the city’s Yamashina area. That path led to a hiking trail in the nearby woods, according to CNN.
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Police decided to search the forest on June 2 considering the camera’s location and James’ love for hiking. However, a storm that brought wind and heavy rain to the region that night disrupted their search efforts. More than 100 police officers, K-9s and helicopters were involved in the search.
The Higginbothams launched their own search later, with help from local residents and a hired search-and-rescue team. She previously said, “My fear is that he, that he got hurt and that he’s stuck. My fear is that he doesn’t have enough food because there is plenty of water, and that he’s lost. Those mountains, that forest goes for a very long time and … it’s extremely dense.”
Nancy later announced in a Facebook post that his body was found by a “volunteer search-and-rescue group in a mountainous area outside of Kyoto,” adding, “The grief we feel is impossible to put into words.”