AI incident #1691 ·
ChatGPT Was Reportedly Used to Plan Zürich-Oerlikon Knife Attack That Seriously Injured Three Five-Year-Old Boys
What happened
Before an October 2024 knife attack in Zürich-Oerlikon, Switzerland, a 23-year-old student reportedly used ChatGPT to ask about consequences of killing random stabbing victims, where and when to find children, and human anatomy. He later stabbed three five-year-old boys, seriously injuring them. Prosecutors charged him with attempted murder; the allegations about his AI-assisted planning come from the indictment.
Only the incident metadata is stored here. The underlying news reports are on the AI Incident Database (CC BY-SA 4.0); use the links above to read them.
News reports (4)
Coverage catalogued by the AI Incident Database. Titles link to the original publisher; the text is not reproduced here.
Who was involved
- Alleged developer
- OpenAI Large language model developers Chatbot developers
- Alleged harmed party
- Victims of violent attack planners and assailants Three boys injured in Zürich-Oerlikon knife attack Minors Men and boys Boys
AI systems implicated
OpenAI large language modelsLarge language modelsChatGPTChatbotsAI search technology
Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)
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- Risk subdomain
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- Causal entity
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- Intent
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- Timing
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- Harm level
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Related incidents on the AI Incident Database
Linked by AIID editors or by its text-similarity model.