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Kim So-young, the defendant in a serial drug murder case, appealed her life sentence just a day after the first-instance court handed it down last month. The ruling made public today (September 8) reveals that it contains detailed records of conversations Kim had with ChatGPT before and after her crimes.
Reporter Je Hui-won has the details.
[Reporter]
This is a record of a conversation Kim So-young had with ChatGPT right after a male victim, who had drunk a beverage laced with drugs, lost consciousness and was rushed to the hospital in December of last year.
Asking, "Will antidepressants and sleeping pills show up in a drug test?" Kim continued her conversation with GPT as if denying the crime, saying after the awakened victim indicated he would report it to the police, "I was prescribed sleeping pills and antidepressants in the past, and I've committed many crimes. Won't they suspect me?" and "I'm anxious that the police might misunderstand and think I administered it."
Before meeting another victim in January of this year, Kim asked ChatGPT, "Do people die if they take a lot of sleeping pills?" and received the response, "In the worst-case scenario, it can lead to death."
Kim also asked about the statutory penalties for involuntary manslaughter or abandonment resulting in death. On the same day, she left the unconscious victim behind and fled a motel alone, and the victim died.
The court viewed these conversation records between the defendant and ChatGPT as key evidence showing the process by which she learned of the possibility of death caused by drugs.
[Lee Woong-hee / Professor of Police Science at Konkuk University: The defendant's inner thoughts and intentions are accumulating in ChatGPT like a mirror, like a lake. It played a very important role in proving conditional intent.]
The court also specified in its ruling that Kim, who grew up facing financial difficulties, learned a distorted experience that even if problems arose while extracting financial gains from men, she could avoid punishment by claiming she was the victim of a sexual crime.
When the first-instance court sentenced her to life imprisonment on August 27, Kim appealed a day later, and prosecutors appealed a week later.
(Video editing: Jeong Yong-hwa, Design: JUNHO)
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