A DEVASTATED father has told how a sick stranger turned his murdered daughter into an AI chatbot.

Drew Crecente’s daughter Jennifer was 18 years old when she was murdered by her ex-boyfriend Justin Crabbe.

11

11

11

11

Crabbe was jailed for 35 years after shooting Jennifer in the back of the head with a sawed-off shotgun in woods near her home in 2006, months before she graduated from high school.

Now, nearly two decades after her brutal murder, Drew fights for justice for her daughter for the second time.

Last month, the father, from Austin, Texas, made a horrifying discovery online after receiving a Google alert.

Drew discovered that her daughter’s name and yearbook photo had been used to create an AI chatbot, which allowed users to chat with her.

She said initial confusion turned to “dread and anger” after realizing her beloved daughter’s identity was being used.

Drew criticized the creation on the Character AI website, which is one of the largest platforms of its kind, as “unacceptable.”

Speaking exclusively to The Sun, he said he is considering legal action against the company after being “retraumatised”.

He said: “It wasn’t something that I was behind or someone who loved and cared about Jennifer that was behind the creation of this.

“Jennifer was a wonderful person. We miss her every day and she is my only child. I didn’t lose a child, I also lost my identity as a mother.”

Drew now faces the “unnecessarily painful situation” of trying to protect his late daughter from online exploitation.

Character AI told The Sun that the chatbot was “created by the user” and was “removed as soon as we were notified about this character.”

As Drew grapples with why someone would turn Jennifer into a chatbot, he fears it could have been done by “a sick person.”

Maybe someone “who spends a lot of time very focused on people who have died, especially people who have been murdered,” he said.

To rub salt in the wound, when Drew registered a complaint to remove the robot and ensure it couldn’t be recreated, he received a “tone deaf” response.

Two weeks after filing a complaint titled “Murdered Child Recreated in Character AI,” he was thanked for bringing the issue to their attention and told the team would “look into it further.”

“We appreciate you making our platform safe for everyone. Cheers!” The company’s message ended.

“I think that makes me happy with the exclamation point afterward, and I think it tells me everything I need to know about character AI. This response was incredibly tone-deaf, surprisingly,” Drew said.

11

11

11

11

“It’s disturbing and tempting to let anger take over…anger makes you stronger and the rest, being sad, upset and retraumatized is exhausting.”

Drew also received a message from the company’s interim CEO two days after filing the original complaint that was picked up by the press.

“It wasn’t a real apology,” Drew said.

“He offered his condolences for the tragic loss of my daughter.

“He also apologized for the annoying reminder this week, without saying they were responsible, but was sorry to be reminded of my daughter’s passing.”

The CEO told the grieving father that the bot was not created by the platform itself but by one of its users and was immediately removed when the issue came to light.

Drew hasn’t heard from Character AI again, but an attempt by The Sun to create a bot under Jennifer’s name showed it was still possible.

This remains true after Character AI told The Sun that his “name has been added to our block list.”

“It’s disturbing to know that it can still be done, but at the same time, it’s helpful because it just highlights the need for me to continue exploring this fully,” Drew said.

The platform maintains that it “takes security seriously” and aims to “provide a creative space that is engaging, immersive and safe.”

However, it has since been reported by The telegraph that chatbots of two other dead teenagers from the United Kingdom were also created on the site.

Brianna Ghey She was 16 years old when she was stabbed to death by two teenagers in 2023.

Molly Russell, 14, ended her life in November 2017 after viewing self-harm and suicide content online.

A foundation created in Russell’s memory called the chatbot “disgusting” and an “absolutely reprehensible failure of moderation.”

Meanwhile, Esther Ghey, Brianna’s mother, told The Telegraph it showed how “manipulative and dangerous” the online world can be.

“It is also a reflection of how our society views victims of crimeespecially murder victims,” ​​which society sees as “entertainment,” Drew added.

“It shows how little time (Character AI) has spent considering the potential harms of this service they are providing to the public.”

He said such companies have a “social responsibility” to avoid harm by creating and launching their technology.

The mother of 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III, who took his own life after becoming obsessed with a chatbot, filed a lawsuit against Character AI in Florida.

The teen allegedly spoke to the robot about the death and also engaged in highly sexualized conversations while isolating himself from the real world.

Setzer shot himself moments after the robot he allegedly fell in love with told him to “come home,” the lawsuit claims.

Character AI told The Sun that it does not comment on ongoing litigation and is “implementing additional moderation tools to help prioritize community safety.”

Drew confirmed that he is “likely” to also take legal action against the multi-billion dollar company.

11

11

‘THE WORST OF US’

Believe that acting now is the only way to prevent future harm, as he predicts this problem will “increase exponentially” with “bad actors” using AI chatbots to cause harm.

“There’s no doubt about it,” said Drew, who has a background in technology.

The father hopes that quick legal action can change the laws surrounding AI.

He noted the level of uncertainty around AI programming, which has less to do with coding and more to do with delivering a “huge library of data” that you want the AI ​​to learn from.

“In that data library there may be some really bad and unhealthy things, including material that is absolutely illegal,” he said.

“We should not be surprised that there is a career to the core through the use of AI.

“It might represent some of the best of us, but unless it’s really profitable to do so, I think it’s more likely to be used to represent the worst of us.”

He believes what happened to Jennifer is just the beginning of the problem.

“We can’t wait for the politicians,” Drew said.

“The reality is that public sentiment is going to be really important… to help prevent future harm.”

When considering AI and the laws surrounding it, Drew urged people to identify with Jennifer as a friend, sister and daughter.

11