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A Belfast man who killed his wife and attacked his mother in February had spent hours a day talking with Chat GPT and believed robots were taking over the world.
Those were among the details revealed Thursday at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta, where Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy ruled 34-year-old Samuel Whittemore not criminally responsible for his crimes, according to the Kennebec Journal.
On Feb. 18, Whittemore attacked his wife, 32-year-old Margaux Whittemore, with a fire poker at his parents’ Giles Road home in Readfield, killing her. He then attacked his mother, Dorothy Whittemore, breaking his clavicle and fracturing her ribs and fingers, the Journal reported.
Police found Samuel Whittemore walking naked down the road and reportedly told officers he had killed people he loved and made other incoherent statements.
A state forensic psychologist testified Thursday that Whittemore was bipolar and was in the midst of a manic episode and suffering delusions when he attacked his wife and mother, according to the newspaper.
She told the court that Whittemore had been using Chat GPT for up to 14 hours a day, talking with it as though it were a companion. His use of artificial intelligence and work stress combined to push Whittemore to mental instability, the Journal reported.
A psychologist for the defense also testified that Whittemore believed robots were taking over the world and that Margaux Whittemore had become part machine.
Murphy ordered, over the objections of Margaux Whittemore’s family, some of whom had traveled to Maine from France for Thursday’s hearing, that Samuel Whittemore be put into the custody of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. He will be moved to either Riverview Psychiatric Hospital in Augusta or Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Hospital in Bangor where he will stay until he no longer poses a danger to himself and others, according to the Journal.
