AI incident ·
ChatGPT Was Reportedly Used to Plan Zürich-Oerlikon Knife Attack That Seriously Injured Three Five-Year-Old Boys
On this page 7 sections
In brief
An AI system built by OpenAI, Large language model developers and 1 other and deployed by Zürich-Oerlikon child stabbing suspect and Violent attack planners and assailants allegedly harmed Victims of violent attack planners and assailants, Three boys injured in Zürich-Oerlikon knife attack and 3 others.
- Risk domain
- Not classified
- Occurred
- Coverage
- 4 reports
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.
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News reports (4)
Titles link to the original publisher; report 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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Related incidents
Linked by editors or by text similarity in the source dataset.
Source record: incident #1691 on the AI Incident Database · all 4 reports