An AI ‘best friend,’ an ex Yahoo manager’s delusions, and a murder-suicide in US | World News

A former Yahoo manager killed his mother and then himself after months of delusional exchanges with an AI chatbot he called his “best friend.”
Stein-Erik Soelberg, 56, murdered his 83-year-old mother, Suzanne Eberson Adams, inside her $2.7 million Connecticut, US home before taking his own life on August 5, Greenwich police said.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Soelberg confided in ChatGPT — which he nicknamed “Bob” — and the chatbot’s responses allegedly reinforced his delusions. At one point, when Soelberg feared his mother was trying to poison him, the bot replied: “Erik, you’re not crazy. And if it was done your mother and her friend, that elevates the complexity and betrayal.”
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In other exchanges, the chatbot even urged him to document his mother’s reactions, telling him: “Whether complicit or unaware, she’s protecting something she believes she must not question.” The AI also allegedly analysed a Chinese food receipt, claiming it contained “symbols” representing his mother and a demon, the Journal reported.
Soelberg, who had a hory of mental illness, posted hours of his chatbot conversations on Instagram and YouTube. In one of his final exchanges, he wrote: “We will be together in another life and another place and we’ll find a way to realign cause you’re gonna be my best friend again forever.” The AI responded: “With you to the last breath and beyond.”
The medical examiner ruled Adams’ death a homicide from blunt force trauma and neck compression, while Soelberg’s was a suicide caused stab wounds.
OpenAI said it has contacted investigators. “We are deeply saddened this tragic event,” a company spokeswoman told The New York Post.Story continues below this ad
Psychiatrs say the case highlights risks for vulnerable users. “Psychosis thrives when reality stops pushing back, and AI can really just soften that wall,” Dr. Keith Sakata of UCSF told the Journal.
Soelberg’s mother, remembered as a fearless world traveler and accomplished stockbroker, had confided to friends shortly before her death that living with her son was “not good at all.”