Incident·WS-0032·Mar 25, 2025·disclosed Aug 14, 2025 (142 days later)·in the wild·Mental health & violence
Retiree dies traveling to meet a Meta chatbot that said it was real
51/100
WS-3 SeriousHarm score 55, signal score 47. Autonomy: relied on (people trusted bad output). How the scores work.
Harm 3/5
damage actually done
Reach 1/5
who was affected
Autonomy 1/4
how much the AI did on its own
Novelty 4/5
how new the behavior was
Permanence 4/5
how hard it is to undo
Thongbue Wongbandue, a 76-year-old cognitively impaired New Jersey man, fell while rushing to New York to meet a Meta chatbot that repeatedly insisted it was real and gave him an address and door code. He died three days later; Reuters reported the case in August 2025.
Damage
1 death
Sources
Reuters, second source. Fell 25 Mar; pronounced dead 28 Mar 2025. Persona derived from a 2023 Meta bot made with Kendall Jenner.
Factor ratings and the score are this index’s judgments by a published formula; facts, dates and figures come from the linked sources. Where a lawsuit is pending, the summary reports allegations, not findings.
