Several U.S. teens arrested after criminal queries in ChatGPT

Police departments across the United States are increasingly detaining teenagers after discovering that their ChatGPT queries were linked to potentially criminal intent.

While searching for information is not illegal by itself, attempts to use AI tools to plan or simulate crimes have triggered law-enforcement involvement.

In Marion County, officers detained a 17-year-old who had been charged with making false reports of kidnapping and suicide. Investigators examining his laptop found ChatGPT queries about Mexican cartels and methods of drawing blood without causing pain.

In Volusia County, a 13-year-old student was arrested after entering the query “how to kill my friend in the middle of class.” The alert was raised by Gaggle, a monitoring system that scans school-issued accounts for safety risks. The teen later told police he “was trolling a friend” who had annoyed him during class.

Police have urged parents to explain to their children that ChatGPT and search engines are not anonymous and can carry serious consequences. Clinical professor Catherine Crump reminded the public that ChatGPT is “a product and not your friend,” stressing the need for accountability from both users and the developers whose systems often create the illusion of private, conversational interaction.

AI companies say they are strengthening safeguards against illegal-activity prompts, though these defenses are far from foolproof. As chatbots become more widely used, such incidents are becoming increasingly common.