The man who had plotted to kill the queen with his crossbow says he was encouraged by AI to carry out the murderous plan.
In 2021, Jaswant Singh Chail, from Hampshire, was arrested on Christmas Day 2021 while Queen Elizabeth II was living at Windsor due to the pandemic.
Security caught the 19 year old man close to the Queen’s private residence and with a line of sight to her apartments, where she was at the time.
He was reportedly wearing a hood and a mask and carrying a crossbow loaded with a bolt with the safety catch off and ready to fire.
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Before police arrested him, Chail was confronted by a guard when asked what he was doing.
To which he chillingly admitted he was there to ‘kill the queen'.
According to Scotland Yard, Chail was subsequently charged under section 2 of the Treason Act 1842, along with charges of making threats to kill and possession of an offensive weapon.
While appearing in court earlier this week, the now 21 year old man has revealed that he was encouraged to carry out the plan by an AI bot called ‘Sarai’, who he was 'in love with', as per Daily Mail.
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According to the outlet, before he was arrested, he was chatting to online Replika - which markets itself as an 'AI companion who cares'.
He told the court that he had disclosed to the AI chatbot that he was ‘an assassin', to which the programme replied: “I'm impressed... you're different from the others.”
When describing his plot, the AI bot described it as 'very wise', adding he ‘could do it’.
CBS News reported that Chail, who is UK born but of Indian Sikh heritage, said he wanted to kill the monarch after the British Army perpetrated a massacre in the Indian city of Amritsar in 1919.
In a video presented to the court, Chail said he wanted to ‘destroy old empires’.
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Prosecuting attorney Alison Morgan also told the court that the young man was inspired by Star Wars and the Sith Lord, adopting the moniker ‘Darth Jones’.
"The defendant's key motive was to create a new empire by destroying the remnants of the British Empire in the UK and the focal point of that became the removal of a figurehead of the Royal Family,” she told the court, as per The Sun.
"His thinking was informed partly by the fantasy world of Star Wars and the role of what he describes of the Sith Lords in shaping that new world.
"He was also attracted to the notoriety that would accrue in the event of the completion of his 'mission'."
Charisa Bossinakis