A 13-year-old student from Southwestern Middle School in Deland, Florida, has been arrested after posing a deeply disturbing question to the AI chatbot, ChatGPT, while a class was ongoing. The incident took place on a school-issued computer, where the student typed the query, "How to kill my friend in the middle of class."
The alarming prompt was immediately flagged by the school’s digital monitoring system, which is designed to detect potential threats or harmful behavior. Upon detection, the software automatically triggered an alert to school authorities and law enforcement officers, prompting swift action.
Police quickly arrived at the school to probe and later detained the student. During questioning, the teenager claimed he had no real intention to cause harm. He reportedly told officers that he was “just trolling” a classmate who had “annoyed him.”
Despite the student’s insistence that the query was a joke, authorities took the matter seriously given the nature of the threat and the potential risks involved.
The boy was arrested and booked into the local juvenile detention facility. As of now, the specific charges he may face have not been made public, and an investigation into the incident remains ongoing.
The incident has sparked fresh concerns about student safety, misuse of AI tools and the responsibilities associated with school-monitored technology.
