First Known Case Of AI Chatbots Used For Stalking

James Florence, 36, has agreed to plead guilty to a seven-year cyberstalking campaign that involved using an AI chatbots to impersonate a university professor and invite strangers to her home for sexual encounters.

Florence, from Massachusetts, used platforms such as CrushOn.ai and JanitorAI to create personalized chatbots that mimicked the professor’s responses and led users to believe they were communicating with her, as reported by The Guardian.

According to court documents reviewed by The Guardian, Florence used the professor’s personal and professional information—such as her home address, date of birth, and family details—to instruct the chatbots to engage in sexually explicit conversations.

The AI bots were programmed to confirm sexual preferences and even provide intimate details about the victim. Florence, who had stolen underwear from the professor’s home, fed the bots information about her clothing choices and directed them to encourage users to visit her house.

The case, filed in Massachusetts federal court, marks a significant legal precedent as the first known instance of a stalker using AI to impersonate their victim to facilitate harassment, said The Guardian. Florence is set to plead guilty to seven counts of cyberstalking and one count of possession of child pornography.

Stefan Turkheimer, vice-president for public policy at Rainn, an anti-sexual-violence nonprofit, described the case as highlighting a disturbing new trend in the misuse of AI.

“This is a question of singling out someone for the goal of potential sexual abuse,” he said, reported The Guardian. “The tools that he’s been able to use here really made the damage so much worse,” he added.

Florence, who was once a friend of the professor, went beyond creating chatbots. He made fake social media accounts and websites to impersonate the victim, distributing explicit, manipulated images of her along with personal details, reported The Guardian.

Platforms like Craigslist, Reddit, X, and Linktree were used to humiliate the professor and distribute the fabricated content. One website, ladies.exposed, featured photo collages of the professor alongside her home address and phone number, as reported by The Guardian.

These actions extended over several years, beginning in 2017. The professor received dozens of disturbing messages and calls, including a voicemail falsely claiming that her father had died in a car accident, as reported by The Guardian.

The victim and her husband became increasingly concerned for their safety, eventually installing surveillance equipment in their home and taking other precautions.

The harassment did not stop with the professor. Florence targeted several other women and a 17-year-old girl, digitally altering their images to create sexually suggestive content.

This alarming trend of using AI for harassment is a growing issue, with reports showing that minors are also being exploited in this way.