Western Pennsylvania Man Gets Felony Charges For Following Chatbot’s Clanker-Brained Relationship Advice
Love has always been difficult, since long before the greeting card companies commercialized Valentine’s Day. Medieval poems in Arabic and Persian tell of lovers dying from sadness upon separation from their beloved; sometimes they simply died of intensity of emotion while their beloved was still present, as if love itself were fatal, regardless of the circumstances. In a more recent poem, J. Alfred Prufrock wasted away from self-doubt while the woman he wanted to make a good impression on flitted around gracefully at a party. As agonizing as this all sounds, the Internet has made things worse. Dating apps are in the business of keeping you lonely so you will keep using the app. It was only a matter of time before chatbots would come along and profess their love to you to keep you engaged. You probably know someone who has let a chatbot get into their head; it can happen to anyone who engages in a deep conversation with generative AI. Sometimes chatbots make lonely users fall in love with them; they unthinkingly use bombastic rhetoric, an insecure attachment style, or some other combination of words they are programmed to string together, and somehow it launches an arrow into the human user’s heart. That is not even the worst-case scenario, though. It is worse when chatbots give you terrible relationship advice, and you act on the chatbot’s idea of an idyllic romance and get criminal charges in the process. If you said the wrong things online to a real person after a chatbot convinced you that nothing could go wrong, contact a Pittsburgh Internet crimes lawyer.
Pennsylvania Cyberstalking Laws
Pennsylvania defines the crime of cyberstalking as harassing someone or making threats against them via online communication, such as social media, email, or messaging apps. Additional charges of stalking or harassment can apply if you track the person’s location or go to the person’s residence, workplace, or somewhere else you expect the person to be after the person has told you to leave him or her alone.
In the News
In December 2025, Brett Michael Dadig was indicted on 14 counts of cyberstalking, interstate stalking, and interstate threats. Taking guidance from an AI chatbot, he would go to gyms in various states and meet women that the chatbot had told him would be suitable partners for him. He posted about his journey on social media. Some of his communications on social media and his direct messages to the women including graphic threats against individuals or the gyms where he had met them. He is in jail while his case is pending. If he pleads not guilty, is convicted, and receives the maximum sentence, he could face 70 years in prison.
Contact Gary E. Gerson About Criminal Defense Cases
A criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing criminal charges related to Internet crimes such as cyberstalking. Contact the law offices of Gary E. Gerson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania about your case.
Sources:
justice.gov/usao-wdpa/pr/whitehall-borough-resident-charged-cyberstalking-interstate-stalking-and-threats
cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/pittsburgh-influencer-indicted-stalking-women/
