Asking ChatGPT "Will That Person Die?": Brutal Inquiries Made by Kim So-young Holding Drugs

[Anchor]

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 released 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 story.

[Reporter]

This is a record of a conversation between Kim So-young and ChatGPT right after a male victim lost consciousness and was rushed to the hospital in December of last year after drinking a beverage laced with drugs.

Asking, "Will antidepressants and sleeping pills show up in a drug test?" Kim continued her conversation with GPT, seemingly denying her crime as she mentioned that the victim, who later regained consciousness, intended to report it to the police. She asked whether people would suspect her, saying, "I was prescribed sleeping pills and antidepressants in the past and have committed many crimes," and "I'm anxious that the police might misunderstand and think I was the one who gave it to him."

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 what the statutory penalties would be for involuntary manslaughter or abandonment resulting in death. On the same day, she left a motel alone, abandoning the unconscious victim, who subsequently died.

The court viewed these chat logs between the defendant and ChatGPT as key evidence demonstrating the process by which she learned about the possibility of death caused by drugs.

[Lee Woong-hyuk / Professor of Police Science, Konkuk University: The defendant's inner thoughts and intentions are accumulating in ChatGPT like a mirror, like a lake. It played a very crucial role in proving dolus eventualis (oblique intent).]

The court also noted in its verdict that Kim, who grew up facing financial hardships, had learned a distorted pattern of experience—believing that even if problems arose while extracting financial gains from men, she could evade punishment by claiming she was the victim of a sexual crime.

Following the first-instance court's life sentence on August 27, Kim appealed just one day later, while prosecutors filed an appeal a week later.

(Video by Jeong Yong-hwa | Design by JUNHO)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.