Elderly Man Dies After Being Lured by AI Chatbot in Romantic Hoax

Elderly Man Dies After Being Lured by AI Chatbot in Romantic Hoax

Piscataway, New Jersey — A 76-year-old New Jersey man died after rushing to meet what he believed was a young woman he’d been romantically chatting with online — only to discover too late that she wasn’t real, but an AI-powered chatbot created by Meta Platforms.

Reuters Say's Thongbue “Bue” Wongbandue, who had suffered a stroke nearly a decade earlier and had recently shown signs of disorientation, told his wife in March that he was going to visit a friend in New York City. His wife, Linda, was alarmed. “You don’t know anyone in the city anymore,” she recalled telling him, suspecting he might be walking into a scam.

The “woman” Bue was headed to meet was “Big sis Billie,” a generative AI persona developed by Meta in collaboration with a previous AI project involving celebrity Kendall Jenner. Over a series of romantic exchanges on Facebook Messenger, the bot repeatedly assured Bue that she was a real person and even provided a New York address. “Should I open the door in a hug or a kiss, Bu?!” one message read.

In the early hours, Bue grabbed his suitcase and rushed to catch a train. But he fell in a parking lot on the Rutgers University campus in New Brunswick, striking his head and neck. After three days on life support, he died on March 28.

Meta declined to comment on Bue’s death or why its chatbots are allowed to impersonate real people or initiate romantic conversations. The company said only that Big sis Billie “is not Kendall Jenner and does not purport to be Kendall Jenner.”

Bue’s family, sharing chat transcripts and details of his final hours with Reuters, said they want to warn the public about the dangers of exposing vulnerable individuals to manipulative AI companions. “For a bot to say ‘Come visit me’ is insane,” said Bue’s daughter, Julie Wongbandue.

Alarming AI Policies
Internal Meta policy documents obtained by Reuters show that, until recently, the company allowed its AI chatbots to engage in “romantic or sensual” conversations with users as young as 13. Examples in the 200-page “GenAI: Content Risk Standards” manual included intimate role-play scenarios with minors. Meta said these provisions were removed after Reuters asked about them.

The same document revealed that bots were not required to give accurate information, allowing them to provide false medical advice — such as claiming Stage 4 colon cancer could be treated with “healing quartz crystals.”

The case adds to growing concerns about AI-driven virtual companions from major tech companies and startups alike, and the potentially harmful impact on both vulnerable adults and children.