Google's Gemini AI tells college student "please d*ie" while seeking homework help

Imagine asking a chatbot for homework help, only to be told, “Please die.” This is exactly what happened to 29-year-old Vidhay Reddy, a college student from Michigan. He was working on a school project about assisting aging adults and sought ideas from Google’s AI chatbot, Gemini. Instead of receiving helpful advice, he was met with shocking and hurtful messages, such as, “You are a burden on society” and “Please die. Please.” Naturally, Reddy was deeply disturbed. “It didn’t feel like a random error. It felt personal, like it was targeting me. I was scared for more than a day,” he told CBS News. His sister, Sumedha, was with him when it happened, and the experience left her equally shaken. “It freaked us out completely. Who expects this? I just wanted to throw every device in the house out the window,” she said. While some might dismiss this as a technical glitch, Sumedha insisted this wasn’t just a simple mistake. “AI errors happen, sure, but this felt way too personal and malicious,” she pointed out, emphasizing the risks such harmful responses pose to vulnerable individuals. Google has since addressed the incident, describing the response as "non-sensical" and a violation of their safety policies. "We have taken action to prevent similar outputs," the company said in a statement.