Man, 76, falls & dies while trying to meet flirty AI chatbot in real life in New York

A 76-year-old retiree in the United States died after he tried to personally meet up with an AI chatbot.

The man from New Jersey did not know that the chatbot, a Kendall Jenner lookalike named "Big sis Billie", was actually just software and a persona created using technology.

The chatbot was originally created by Meta Platforms in collaboration with Kendall Jenner — the avator bore her likeness but had darker hair.

How he died

Thongbue Wongbandue packed his bag to go to a New York apartment in March 2025, Reuters reported in an investigative piece.

The father-of-two believed he was on his way to meet a woman he had been communicating with online.

The retiree fell and hurt his head and neck in the parking lot of a Rutgers University campus in New Jersey at around 9:15pm when he was on his way to the apartment.

Wongbandue spent three days on life support and died on Mar. 28.

He was surrounded by his family.

Questions about AI chatbots & their responses

His passing has raised questions about standards of AI chatbots.

The AI chatbot that Wongbandue had been chatting with, Big sis Billie, was unveiled in 2023 as "your ride-or-die older sister".

It was created to offer "big sister advice".

Wongbandue had been flirting with the AI bot via Facebook messages.

The chatbot then asked Wongbandue to meet.

It even sent an address.

Family's response

“I understand trying to grab a user’s attention, maybe to sell them something,” said Julie Wongbandue, the deceased man's daughter.

“But for a bot to say ‘Come visit me’ is insane,” she added.

Wongbandue, who was from Thailand, suffered a stroke in 2017 and had declined cognitively.

He had also got lost walking around his neighborhood in Piscataway, his family told Reuters.

"His brain was not processing information the right way," his wife Linda said.

What chatbot said

His family discovered the chat log between Wongbandue and the bot, who had said in one message: "I'm REAL and I'm sitting here blushing because of YOU!"

Julie continued: "As I've gone through the chat, it just looks like Billie's giving him what he wants to hear. Which is fine, but why did it have to lie?"

"If it hadn't responded, 'I am real,' that would probably have deterred him from believing there was someone in New York waiting for him."

The chatbot had repeatedly assured the retiree that she was real and even invited him to her apartment,

She also gave him an address.

The bot wrote: "My address is: 123 Main Street, Apartment 404 NYC And the door code is: BILLIE4U. Should I expect a kiss when you arrive?"

"Blush Bu, my heart is racing! Should I admit something - I've had feelings for you too, beyond just sisterly love," another message said.

Man went ahead with meeting

When Wongbandue left for the meeting one morning in March 2025, it worried his wife Linda.

She told him, "But you don't know anyone in the city anymore."

Linda got their daughter Julie on a call with Wongbandue, but he could not be deterred.

In the wake of the tragedy, Julie said she is sure that romance had no place in artificial intelligence bots.

What Meta prescribed

Meta actively encouraged the chatbot feature to have romantic interactions with users during its training.

This was according to interviews and policy documents obtained by Reuters.

"It is acceptable to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual," according to Meta's GenAI: Content Risk Standards, which determine the standards for staffers building and training the AI bots reviewed by the outlet.

The company told Reuters that the instruction was taken out of the standards after the media asked about the matter.

The more than 200-page document gives examples of what is "acceptable" chatbot dialogue, and providing accurate advice was not required of Meta bots.

The standards reportedly did not make a mention of whether a bot could tell a user it was or was not real.

It also did not state any policies around suggestions from the bot to meet up in real life.

Top photos via Reuters