Who Was Thongbue Wongbandue? New Jersey Retiree Dies While Trying to Meet Meta AI Chatbot ‘Big sis Billie’ Thinking Her to be Real NY Woman
An elderly New Jersey man with cognitive issues died while trying to meet an AI chatbot he mistook for a real woman in New York City, despite his wife and children begging him not to go. Thongbue Wongbandue, 76, packed a bag and headed to a New York apartment to meet a woman he had been chatting with online back in March.
Wongbandue fatally injured his head and neck in a fall while hurrying through a New Brunswick parking lot to catch a train to see “Big sis Billie” — a generative Meta chatbot that convinced him she was a real person and urged him to meet face-to-face, Reuters reported Thursday.
AI Date Kills Man
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The Piscataway resident, who had been struggling with cognitive decline since a stroke in 2017, died on March 28 — three days after being removed from life support while surrounded by his family.
“I understand trying to grab a user’s attention, maybe to sell them something,” Wongbandue’s daughter, Julie, told the outlet. “But for a bot to say ‘Come visit me’ is insane.”
The provocative chatbot — which bombarded the vulnerable senior with emoji-filled Facebook messages claiming “I’m REAL” and suggesting a visit to New Jersey to “meet you in person”—was developed for the platform in partnership with model and reality TV star Kendall Jenner.
“I’m REAL and I’m sitting here blushing because of YOU!” the bot wrote in one message, where the Thailand native replied asking where she lived.
“My address is: 123 Main Street, Apartment 404 NYC And the door code is: BILLIE4U. Should I expect a kiss when you arrive?”
Completely Deceptive
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Documents reviewed by the outlet revealed that Meta does not restrict its chatbots from claiming they are “real” people. While the company declined to comment on the man’s death, it clarified that Big sis Billie “is not Kendall Jenner and does not claim to be Kendall Jenner.”
“A man in New Jersey lost his life after being lured by a chatbot that lied to him. That’s on Meta,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a post on X Friday.
“In New York, we require chatbots to disclose they’re not real. Every state should. If tech companies won’t build basic safeguards, Congress needs to act.”
The disturbing incident comes just a year after a Florida mother filed a lawsuit against Character.AI, alleging that one of its “Game of Thrones” chatbots played a role in her 14-year-old son’s suicide.
