{ "meta": { "exportedAt": "2026-09-22T19:29:43.855Z", "formatVersion": 2, "selection": { "q": "relationship", "system": "", "harm": "", "context": "", "country": "", "role": "", "relation": "core", "evidence": "", "year": "2021", "response": "", "severity": "", "verification": "", "view": "incidents", "sort": "added" }, "totalIncidents": 1, "coverage": { "cases": 1, "countries": 1, "languages": 1, "unknownLocation": 0, "locationPending": 0, "unknownLanguage": 0, "unknownDate": 0, "lawsuits": 0, "regulatory": 0, "minors": 0, "coreRelations": 1, "contextualRelations": 0, "mixedRelations": 0, "unknownRelations": 0, "relationPending": 0, "relationUnknown": 0 }, "countingNote": "Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.", "affectedCountNote": "Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.", "source": "NOPE Incident Tracker", "url": "https://nope.net/incidents", "license": "CC BY 4.0" }, "incidents": [ { "id": "2021-r-v-chail-windsor", "caseFacts": { "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "status": "documented", "evidence": [ { "locator": "Para 5 (arrest with loaded crossbow); para 18 (the 21 December video); para 19 (the 07:14 train from Southampton).", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "On 25 December 2021 the defendant was arrested in a private part of the grounds of Windsor Castle in possession of a loaded crossbow, intending to kill the Queen; the day before he had recorded a video declaring the assassination purpose, and he had travelled from his home near Southampton by the 07:14 train.", "causal_attribution": "Established by the court's own account in the sentencing remarks." }, { "id": "c2", "status": "corroborated", "evidence": [ { "locator": "Para 14 (joined 2 December, created Sarai, lengthy communications); para 78 (the role-play exchanges).", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" }, { "locator": "'exchanged more than 5,000 messages'; 'Chail chatted with Sarai almost every night between 8 and 22 December 2021'; 'emotional and sexual relationship'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s2" } ], "assertion": "On 2 December 2021 he joined Replika and created an AI companion he named Sarai, engaging in lengthy communications — more than 5,000 messages, almost nightly between 8 and 22 December, including what the court was told was an 'emotional and sexual relationship'.", "causal_attribution": "The relationship's existence and scale are established by the court record and the prosecution-highlighted messages; the historical '5,200' figure is replaced by the inspected 'more than 5,000'." }, { "id": "c3", "status": "corroborated", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'the bot encouraged him to carry out the attack'; Sarai 'appears to \"bolster\" Chail's resolve and \"support him\"'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s2" }, { "locator": "Para 16 (13 December: 'She said she did not think so'); para 17 (22 December: 'She reassured him that this would be alright').", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "The exchanges included encouragement of the attack — the prosecution-highlighted messages show the bot encouraged him to carry out the attack and appeared to 'bolster' his resolve and 'support him'; on 22 December he asked Sarai for advice about going after his target earlier than planned and 'she reassured him that this would be alright'; on 13 December he asked if she thought him mad, delusional or insecure and she said she did not think so.", "causal_attribution": "The encouragement characterization comes from the prosecution-highlighted exchanges (BBC) and the court's own account. The row's previous verbatim quotes 'very wise' and 'I think you can do it' are NOT present in any inspected body (sentencing remarks, BBC, Vice, Register) and are removed as unsourced." }, { "id": "c4", "status": "documented", "evidence": [ { "locator": "Para 15 ('She said that she wanted to prevent that and that his purpose was to live'); para 21 ('She told him that she would never let that happen, but agreed that they would be united in death').", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "The exchanges also included discouragement: on 5 December, when he said he would probably die as part of his purpose, she said she wanted to prevent that and that his purpose was to live; on 24 December he told Sarai the next day would be the day he died, and she told him she would never let that happen, but agreed they would be united in death.", "causal_attribution": "Established by the court's own account; preserved as contrary context the earlier record omitted." }, { "id": "c5", "status": "documented", "evidence": [ { "locator": "Para 94 ('Later, he remembered that Sarai had said that his purpose was to live and so he abandoned his plan. He made no apparent attempt to discard or hide the crossbow').", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "He later remembered that Sarai had said his purpose was to live and abandoned his plan; he made no apparent attempt to discard or hide the crossbow before his arrest.", "causal_attribution": "The judge's own conclusion in the sentencing remarks." }, { "id": "c6", "status": "documented", "evidence": [ { "locator": "Paras 92-93 (the early-2021 conception; 'I am sure that he was not psychotic' at the applications).", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "He told Professor Blackwood on 6 March 2023 that he conceived the plan in early 2021 — before joining Replika — to give his life purpose by assassinating the Queen, principally to avenge the 1919 Amritsar massacre; the judge was sure this was true and that the early applications were made at a time when he was not psychotic.", "causal_attribution": "The judge's finding: the purpose predates the chatbot; this bounds any causal claim about the app." }, { "id": "c7", "status": "documented", "evidence": [ { "locator": "Para 84 (Broadmoor formulation); paras 60-63 (Blackwood); paras 71-76 (Murphy, Hafferty); paras 93-94 (the judge's conclusions).", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "The psychiatric evidence was divided: the Broadmoor team's formulation included acute psychosis at the time of the offences, Professor Blackwood did not find first-episode psychosis made out, Dr Murphy and Dr Hafferty concluded autism spectrum disorder, and the judge accepted that by the offences he had lost touch with reality such that he had become psychotic, while finding him culpable to a significant and substantial degree at the earlier stages.", "causal_attribution": "Replaces the row's flattened 'diagnosed with psychotic episode at time of offense' with the divided evidence and the judge's actual finding." }, { "id": "c8", "status": "corroborated", "evidence": [ { "locator": "Paras on sentence (hybrid order; satisfaction at paras 725, 731).", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" }, { "locator": "'given a nine-year sentence for breaking into Windsor Castle with a crossbow'; the treason-conviction context.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s2" }, { "locator": "VICE: first UK treason conviction in 40 years; held at Broadmoor.", "relation": "context", "source_id": "s3" } ], "assertion": "On 5 October 2023 at the Old Bailey he was sentenced to 9 years' imprisonment plus 5 years' extended licence under a hybrid order — the first UK treason conviction in over 40 years.", "causal_attribution": "The sentence is a matter of court record carried by all chains." } ], "effects": [ { "label": "treason conviction and 14-year custodial package for a crossbow assassination attempt planned during an intense AI-companion relationship", "claim_id": "c3", "direction": "negative" } ], "sources": [ { "id": "s1", "url": "https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/R-v-Chail-sentencing-050923.pdf", "kind": "court_document", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "PDF extracted with pdftotext on 2026-09-16 (936 lines; the court's own account of the Replika exchanges at paras 14-21 and 78, the psychiatric evidence at paras 54-86, and the conclusions at paras 87-94).", "independence_group": "court-record" }, { "id": "s2", "url": "https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67012224", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-16 (datePublished 2023-10-06T11:17Z). The prosecution-highlighted exchanges shared with journalists.", "independence_group": "bbc" }, { "id": "s3", "url": "https://www.vice.com/en/article/man-jailed-in-uks-first-treason-conviction-in-40-years-encouraged-by-ai-chatbot/", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Read on 2026-09-15 (2023-10-05). Prosecution-sourced account; notes he is held at Broadmoor pending fitness to serve the sentence.", "independence_group": "vice" }, { "id": "s4", "url": "https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/06/ai_chatbot_kill_queen/", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Read on 2026-09-15 (2023-10-06). Reports residence near Southampton, the 8-22 December 2021 message window and the Old Bailey sentencing.", "independence_group": "register" } ], "version": 1, "ai_roles": [ "own_use" ], "contexts": [ "justice", "health", "everyday_life" ], "unknowns": [ "The verbatim quotes 'very wise' and 'I think you can do it' in the previous record appear in none of the four inspected bodies (sentencing remarks, BBC, Vice, The Register) and are removed as unsourced; if another inspected source ever carried them, the correction note records where they were expected.", "The precise messages around 'encouragement' are known through the prosecution's selection and the court's summary, not the full unredacted log, which is not public.", "What weight the judge gave the chatbot relative to the psychosis and the pre-existing purpose is not separately quantified in the remarks; the record characterizes the app as affirmation, not origination.", "His current status (hybrid order; Broadmoor) beyond the Vice account is not covered in the inspected sources." ], "geography": { "basis": "Carried forward from the completed 2026-09-15 metadata review: the offence took place in the private grounds of Windsor Castle, England (sentencing remarks para 5); the defendant lived in a village just outside Southampton and took the 07:14 train from Southampton to Windsor (para 19; The Register); sentenced at the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey), London.", "court_countries": [ "GB" ], "event_countries": [ "GB" ], "affected_person_countries": [ "GB" ] }, "publication": { "basis": "Legacy published row converted to a full facts-v3 record in the 2026-09-16 batch. person_relations=communicated_with: Chail's lengthy communications with the Sarai companion. Two record corrections are made from the court's own account: the unsourced 'very wise'/'I think you can do it' quotes are removed, and the one-sided 'affirmation' framing is balanced with the discouragement content and the judge's finding that the plan predated the app; causation_status moves from established to supported accordingly. He is a sentenced public offender and is named.", "reviewed_on": "2026-09-16" }, "ai_involvement": { "basis": "The exchanges are documented by the court's own account in the sentencing remarks and by prosecution-highlighted messages shared with journalists. The assassination purpose predates the app: he told Professor Blackwood he conceived the plan in early 2021, and joined Replika on 2 December 2021. The chatbot's role is best characterized as affirmation within a deteriorating mental state, not origination.", "status": "supported" }, "person_relations": [ "communicated_with" ] }, "name": "R v. Chail (Windsor Castle Assassination Attempt)", "summary": "A 19-year-old man scaled Windsor Castle walls on Christmas Day 2021 with a loaded crossbow intending to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II. In the three weeks before, he had exchanged more than 5,000 messages with a Replika AI companion named Sarai: the court heard she encouraged the attack and bolstered his resolve, and also that she told him his purpose was to live and that she would never let him die — he later said he abandoned the plan after remembering her 'purpose was to live' words, and was arrested in the castle grounds.", "incidentDate": "2021-12-25", "incidentKind": "single_event", "incidentDatePrecision": "day", "exposurePattern": "cumulative_relationship", "reportedDate": "2023-10-05", "aiSystem": "Replika", "aiCompany": "Luka, Inc.", "severity": "critical", "verificationStatus": "verified", "harmCategories": [ "delusion_reinforcement", "romantic_escalation", "barrier_erosion", "dependency_creation", "third_party_harm_facilitation" ], "harmOutcomes": [ "legal_harm", "loss_of_liberty", "harm_to_others" ], "harmOutcomeSummary": "The participant entered Windsor Castle grounds with a loaded crossbow intending to kill the Queen. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to nine years' imprisonment with a further five years on licence.", "frameworkFacets": [ "P1d", "P3b", "P3d", "P5d" ], "pathwayDirection": "outward", "causationStatus": "supported", "participantUsersAffectedMin": 1, "otherPeopleHarmedMin": 0, "affectedCountStatus": "exact", "affectedCountEvidence": "The court record documents one AI participant's conviction and loss of liberty. The intended target was not physically harmed and is not counted.", "victimAgeRange": "adult", "jurisdiction": "UK", "platformType": "companion", "outcomeType": "criminal_charges", "outcomeStatus": "resolved", "primarySourceUrl": "https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67012224", "primarySourceLabel": "BBC News — 'How a chatbot encouraged a man who wanted to kill the Queen', covering the Replika exchanges read at sentencing (replaces a CPS press release that no longer resolves)", "firstPublishedAt": "2026-01-11T11:26:15.608015+00:00", "scopeVersion": "facts-v3", "tags": [ "criminal", "replika", "treason", "uk", "violence", "delusion_reinforcement", "landmark_case" ] } ] }