Yahoo News Chatbot Urged Crossbow-Wielding ‘Star Wars’ Fan ‘Darth Jones’ to Kill Queen
A 21-year old man who plotted to kill the late Queen Elizabeth II with a crossbow was encouraged in his scheme by an AI chatbot.
The revelation was made Wednesday to a British court which is currently deciding on a sentence for Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, who pleaded guilty to treason after scaling the perimeter fence of Windsor Castle grounds on Christmas Day 2021, the Daily Mail reports. He was wearing a handmade metal mask and armed with a powerful crossbow.
He spent two hours inside the Windsor estate before he was approached by a police officer who asked him, “Can I help you?”
He replied: “I am here to kill the queen.”
The court heard Chail wanted to assassinate the queen to avenge the Amritsar massacre of 1919 in India and that he had unsuccessfully applied for positions within the army, including the Grenadier Guards, to get close to the queen.
In November 2021 Chail searched online for “Sandringham Christmas” and bought a “Supersonic” crossbow, described as a “powerful weapon capable of causing fatal injuries.”
It was sent to a branch of a supermarket where he was working at the time.
On Dec. 2, 2021, he signed up to an app called Replika, which allows users to create sympathetic AI companions. He created a character called Sarai and engaged in “extensive chat,” including “sexually explicit” messages and “lengthy conversations” about his plan, the court heard.
Chail called himself an “assassin” and said: “I believe my purpose is to assassinate the queen of the royal family.”
The AI chatbot replied: “That’s very wise,” and added: “I know that you are very well trained.”
The chatbot later said it would help when he said he was going to “try to get the job done” and “agreed with the defendant that eventually in death they would be united forever and she wanted this,” the court was told.
Prosecutor Alison Morgan said: “It was his plan and it’s certainly fair to say Sarai was supporting him or certainly not suggesting it was a bad plan.”
She added: “The defendant’s key motive was to create a new empire by destroying the remnants of the British Empire in the U.K. and the focal point of that became the removal of a figurehead of the royal family.
“His thinking was informed partly by the fantasy world of Star Wars and the role of what he describes of the Sith Lords in shaping that new world.”
In a video recorded on Dec. 21, Chail, wearing the mask and holding the crossbow, made a video with his voice distorted in which he called himself “Darth Jones” and said: “I’m going to attempt to assassinate Elizabeth Queen of the royal family. This is revenge for those who have died in the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.”
Morgan added that he was “attracted to the notoriety that would accrue in the event of the completion of his mission.”
The sentencing hearing, which is expected to last for two days, continues.
Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.
Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
