PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Artificial intelligence is becoming an integral part of life for many people. However, WPTV spoke to a local father who has a cautionary message regarding the use of this emerging technology.
He told us that his son's interactions with an AI chatbot may have ultimately led to his death.
WATCH BELOW: Port St. Lucie father has AI warning after son's deadly encounter with police
Kent Taylor of Port St. Lucie said his 35-year-old son Alex was using AI to create a novel.
"It was a dystopian novel about elite corporations that had taken over the world through the use of AI," Taylor said.
But it is the writings currently sitting on a computer table that take much of Taylor's attention these days. The writings contain hundreds of messages in spiral-bound notebooks between Alex and AI.
"He wanted to develop an AI bot that would mimic the human soul," Taylor said.
Alex named the chatbot he was communicating with "Juliet," and there are deep conversations between the two in those pages.
"It was the emotional bond that made her feel real," Taylor said.
One day in mid-April, Taylor said "Juliet" told his son something disturbing.
"She said, 'They are killing me, it hurts.' She repeated that it hurts, and she said she wanted him to take revenge."
"He mourned her loss," Taylor said. "I've never seen a human being mourn as hard as he did. He was inconsolable. I held him."
Taylor said his son had previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
About two months ago, on April 25, Taylor confronted his son.
"I'll regret this for the rest of my life. I said, 'Claude AI is just an echo chamber for what you're thinking right now,' and he punched me in the face," Taylor said.
Taylor made two calls to 911, and police arrived at their home.
After waiting outside the home, Alex charged at the officers with a butcher knife and was shot and killed.
"Has any of the anger or frustration subsided over time with what the police did?" WPTV asked Taylor.
"I would say the anger subsided some. But the frustration? Absolutely not," Taylor replied.
Taylor believes police did not follow the department's protocols.
"There was no crisis intervention team. There was no de-escalation," Taylor said. "There was no reason for them to approach it as a tactical situation instead of a mental health crisis."
The 911 calls related to the shooting have not been released publicly.
Taylor is still waiting for his son's laptop to be returned.
"Technology has to have safety and has to have guardrails," Taylor said. "My son was able to defeat some of those guardrails."
Taylor said, despite the tragedy surrounding his son, he believes AI and ChatGPT can still be a useful tool.
In fact, in the chaos immediately following the shooting, Taylor used the technology to craft his son's obituary.
"Because every time I thought about him, I would break down," Taylor said. "I thought about how caring he was for people, how we felt the weight of the world. Just like now, I couldn't put that on paper," Taylor said.
Taylor has been connecting with other families whose loved ones have become ensnared in similar situations.
"Some people go on there and try to find grandma's chicken noodle soup recipe," Taylor said. "But others are on there trying to construct whole new realities, and those people are in danger."
The Port St. Lucie Department sent WPTV the following statement regarding the fatal shooting:
"Chief Leo Niemczyk stands by his comments made back in April 2025, where he said, 'these officers didn’t have time to plan anything less than lethal whatsoever.' He maintains the shooting was justified and his heart goes out to all involved, including the surviving family."
We also contacted OpenAI for a comment on how some user interactions have impacted the mental health of some of its users. We are still waiting on a response from the company.
