A 27-year-old business management Masters student's defense for stalking a McDonald's employee took an unexpected turn when he blamed an unlikely accomplice: ChatGPT.
Farhan Ali was a student at the University of Stirling when he met the woman, also a McDonald's employee, while working as a delivery driver for the fast food chain. According to Glasgow Times, he then stalked her from Feb. 3 to Feb. 23.
CCTV footage shows Ali approaching the victim for the first time at 11 p.m. while she was emptying trash bins to ask for her number. He said he was too "shy" to do it in front of their colleagues.
The victim stated she was "scared" when Ali approached her because he said he had been "watching her at work." Ali claims, however, that she smiled at him and added him on Snapchat. That night, he sent her a "thank you" message on the app, which the victim ignored.
Ali then texted the victim, writing: "I would like to take you out for a coffee some time, no pressure, just let me know if you are up for it."
After his second message was also ignored, Ali went to the McDonald's location while the victim was working and ordered a milkshake. The prosecutor asked Ali if he was trying to "engineer" contact with the victim. He said he "cannot comment on that, I was working that day and just wanted to buy a milkshake for myself."
That night, Ali said he explained the circumstances to ChatGPT. He told the court the AI bot told him to message the victim again, which he did using suggested text from ChatGPT. His message read: "Hey, I hope you are well, I understand that my messages may make you feel uncomfortable." He also asked to meet again.
Ali said he "didn't do anything which I needed to apologize for. I only sent her two messages prior to this and this was a third message."
The prosecutor reminded Ali that he did apologize, then asked, "Are you saying that ChatGPT told you to?"
"That was the message that was suggested by ChatGPT and I thought it would be better if I do this," Ali said.
Following these messages, the victim blocked Ali on social media. The victim also alleged Ali followed her in his vehicle, but he denied the allegation, citing "insurance issues," per the Glasgow Times.
Ali was found guilty of stalking and will be sentenced in October.
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