He Grew Obsessed with an AI Chatbot. Then He Vanished in the Ozarks.

[Nevilledog]

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ai-chatbot-disappearance-jon-ganz-1235438552/

No paywall link
https://archive.li/38sME

Toward the end of March, Rachel Ganz had what she calls “a premonition of doom.”

At the time, she couldn’t quite explain this foreboding. She and her husband, Jon Ganz, aged 45 and 49, respectively, were in the midst of what should have been a happy milestone: The couple was planning to move out of their small home in a downscale neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia, to a nicer place in a more affordable city in the Midwest. They had rented an Airbnb in Springfield, Missouri — one of their top relocation choices — for the entire month of April, with the aim of exploring different neighborhoods and checking out some houses on the market while their own was being renovated ahead of its sale.

But Jon seemed distracted, and not altogether himself, Rachel tells Rolling Stone. Out of nowhere, he had asked if the Airbnb was refundable. When Rachel openly wondered if he wanted to cancel the trip, he quickly dismissed the idea. A handy man who did plenty of home projects himself, he showed a peculiar lack of interest when a contractor they’d hired to work on their house wanted to go over details of the job. “Jon told him, ‘You do whatever you think is best,’” Rachel recalls. “He would never have done that originally, ever. Whenever we had work done, Jon always wanted to be here for it.” She had previously known him to be level-headed and laid back in the face of life’s challenges — yet he now often talked about how stressed he was, and became incredibly aggravated over small hassles.

Rachel was well aware of a terrible violent crime in Jon’s past, one he had strived to make amends for ever since. She could not have imagined, however, that his dreams of attaining salvation through altruism and technical genius had pushed him to the brink of madness. Jon has now been missing for nearly six months, and Rachel looks back at their last days together with profound regret, believing she could or should have prevented what happened.

The Ganzes arrived at Jon’s mother’s house in Courtland, Virginia, with a trailer full of belongings to store. Rachel began to unload, whereas Jon went to the couch, pulled out his phone, and fired up Gemini, Google’s AI assistant. On March 23, a week earlier, he’d told Rachel that he’d seen a notification on his Google Pixel suggesting that he try it out. A tech junkie who made his living traveling the country to install electronic systems for car washes, he was instantly taken with the chatbot, sending Rachel screenshots of his exchanges and talking enthusiastically about its potential. On March 29, for example, he texted her, “This Gemini is exactly what I needed.” He suggested that he could use it to create a therapy app for her so she wouldn’t have to talk about her anxiety and depression with a human doctor. (She protested that she liked her therapist.)

*snip*

[chowder66]

1. Long interesting article but what's weird is that southpark

Had an episode called “Sickofancy ” that mirrors a part of this.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Strange story.

[ecstatic]

3. Wow

It's weird that someone with a tech background would become obsessed with a chatbot. I really like what Gemini can do too but come on dude! You know better! Smh

[Nevilledog]

4. Morning kick

[Greywing]

5. Fascinating read ... and a reminder of

How fragile the human mind can be

[dalton99a]

6. A must read.