A 17-year-old Indian-origin boy has been charged with killing his mother and younger brother at their home in Massachusetts after allegedly using ChatGPT to create stories and explore fantasies about his family being killed.
Arjun Aravind faces two counts of murder over the deaths of his mother, Sudha Venkatesan, 45, and his 14-year-old brother, Siddharth Aravind, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office said.
Police found the victims with “obvious trauma” at their home in Acton, about 32 km west of Boston, on Tuesday evening. Siddharth was found on the first floor, while Venkatesan’s body was discovered in the basement.
The alarm was raised after a tutor arrived for an appointment but could not enter the locked house. Arjun’s father, who had also been unable to contact his family, then asked police to conduct a welfare check.
Arjun and his mother’s Honda Accord were missing from the property, prompting an overnight search. Officers found him inside the car in nearby Wayland early Wednesday while responding to an unrelated alarm, according to a local public radio station.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said investigators had uncovered “concerning behaviour”, including the teenager’s use of the internet and ChatGPT to search for “theoretical ideas or fantasy stories regarding the killing of his family”.
Ryan said he appeared to have used the chatbot to create characters and “Gothic novel kind of stories” that involved threats to his family’s survival. Authorities have not said that ChatGPT instructed him to commit violence or that its use caused the alleged killings.
The exact causes of the victims’ deaths and whether a weapon was used remain under investigation by the state medical examiner.
Arjun also faces assault and battery and motor vehicle-related charges.