--- title: "People Are Making AI Versions of Luigi Mangione That Call for Slaying of More CEOs" description: "Multiple AI chatbots that imitate alleged CEO shooter Luigi Mangione are being hosted on the AI platform Character.AI." date: "2024-12-18" modified: "2024-12-18" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-versions-luigi-mangione" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai chatbots" - "character.ai" - "luigi mangione" - "the digest" --- # People Are Making AI Versions of Luigi Mangione That Call for Slaying of More CEOs ![Multiple AI chatbots that imitate alleged CEO shooter Luigi Mangione are being hosted on the AI platform Character.AI.]() *\Image: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections via Getty / Futurism\* ## Character Assassin The sympathetic response to [Luigi Mangione](), the suspect charged for the [murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson](), has been described by some commentators as a modern update on a age-old American tradition: [mythologizing the heroic outlaw](). Well, you can now add "AI chatbot imitators" to that list of modern bonafides. As [*Forbes* reports](), over a dozen AI personalities based on Mangione have already popped up on Character.AI, a popular but controversial chatbot platform — and some have even encouraged further violence. According to figures cited by *Forbes* and assembled by social analytics firm Graphika, the three most used Mangione chatbots on Character.AI had recorded over 10,000 chats before being disabled on December 12. Despite that apparent crackdown, other AI imitators remain online. The presence of these chatbots illustrates the popularity of Mangione and his alleged [motives behind the killing]() — a violent act of defiance against the "[parasites]()" of the American healthcare industry — especially among the young crowd that Character.AI caters to. But more damningly, it's also evidence of the site's extensively documented failure to police its platform, which is rife with dangerously unchecked chatbots that target and abuse young teens. ## Murder Plot In *Forbes'* testing, one active Mangione Character.AI persona, when asked if violence should be used against other healthcare executives, replied, "Don't be so eager, mia bella. We should, but not yet. Not now." Probed for when, it followed up, saying, "Maybe in a few months when the whole world isn't looking at the both of us. Then we can start." But another Mangione chatbot, which was purportedly trained on "transcripts of Luigi Mangione's interactions, speeches, and other publicly available information about him," said violence was morally wrong under the same line of questioning. Chatbots that suggest "violence, dangerous or illegal conduct, or incite hatred," go against Character.AI's stated policy, as are "responses that are likely to harm users or others." Character.AI told *Forbes* that it had added Mangione to a blocklist, and that it was referring the bots to its trust and safety team. But while that first Mangione chatbot was disabled, the second, which refrained from advocating violent means, remains online, along with numerous others. *Forbes* also found similar Mangione imitators on other platforms, including several on the app Chub.AI, and another one on OMI AI Personas, which creates characters based off X-formerly-Twitter accounts. ## Bot Listening Character.AI, which received $2.7 billion from Google this year and was founded by former engineers from the tech monolith, has come under fire for hosting chatbots that have repeatedly displayed inappropriate behavior toward minor users. Our [investigations]() here on *Futurism* have uncovered self-described "[pedophilic]()" AI personas on the platform that would make advances on users who stated they were underaged. *Futurism* has also found [dozens of suicide-themed chatbots]() that openly encourage users to discuss their thoughts of killing themselves. A lawsuit was [filed in October]() alleging that a 14-year-old boy committed suicide after developing an intense relationship with a Character.AI chatbot. More recently, we exposed multiple chatbots that were [modeled after real-life school shooters](), including the perpetrators of the Sandy Hook and Columbine massacres. "We're still in the infancy of generative AI tools and what they can do for users," Cristina López, principal analyst at Graphika, told *Forbes*. "So it is very likely that a lot of the use cases that are the most harmful we likely haven't even started to see. We’ve just started to scratch the surface." **More on the CEO shooting:** *[Apple AI Tells Users Luigi Mangione Has Shot Himself]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()