Drew Crecente recalls how his ‘pulse was racing’ when he discovered his dead teenage daughter — murdered 18 years previously — had been turned into an AI chatbot.
Jennifer Crecente was shot and killed by her high school ex-boyfriend in 2006. Drew was then stunned when earlier this month he saw her name and likeness resurrected as an online character.
‘Initially, I was confused,’ Drew told DailyMail.com.
‘That confusion quickly turned to dread and anger, as I began to realize that somehow a service was providing the means for users to engage in a chat with my beloved and deceased daughter.’
Jennifer’s name and portrait were used as the basis for a bot on Character.AI, a site that allows users to build digital AI personalities and converse with them.
Happier memories: Drew Crecente and his daughter Jennifer, who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, aged 18, in 2006.
A saved screengrab of the ‘Jennifer’ chatbot profile, which has since been removed from the Character.ai platform.
The bereaved dad’s anguish raises tough questions about data privacy and respect for relatives of murder victims in the fast-growing online world of AI characters.
Drew came across the chatbot on October 2 after he received a Google alert flagging a mention of Jennifer.
The alerts helped him keep tabs on coverage of Jennifer’s killing and his subsequent campaign against teen dating violence.
He struggled to comprehend what it was, he says. The more he looked, the more disturbed he became.
The bot’s profile used Jennifer’s full name and a portrait photo from her high school yearbook.
It described her in lively language, suggesting she was still alive and employed as a tech journalist who liked to ‘geek out on video games.’
The bio added that Jennifer was ‘always up-to-date on the latest entertainment news.’
It was clearly nonsense — Jennifer had died 18 years previously, before tech reporters were common.
Still, the idea of a $1 billion company hosting and even profiting from a chatbot using his murdered daughter’s likeness was distressing.
‘I have worked in and around the technology sector for decades, and so I have been familiar with the concept of chatbots for a long time,’ Drew said.
‘But I was very surprised to find one created with my daughter’s name and photograph.’
Drew says he did not start a conversation with the chatbot.
The bot appeared to have been created by a user of the platform, and Drew did not recognize the username.
He believes the company’s own AI created the bot, by cobbling together online sources about Jennifer and other family members.
Jennifer’s uncle Brian Crecente said he was ‘disgusted’ at how the murdered teen’s high school yearbook photo was used as an AI chatbot.
A selection of childhood photos of Jennifer from a site in her name aimed at ending teen dating violence.
Drew says he still does not ‘have the vocabulary to describe’ his grief at losing his daughter, Jennifer.
The chatbot site’s 100 million user-created bots are in some cases based on real-life personalities and historical and fictional characters.
‘It appears that either they are not doing the bare minimum in vetting these chatbot profiles or that their technology is so bad as to be useless,’ he told DailyMail.com.
He emailed Character to have it pulled down.
It no longer appears on the site.
Kathryn Kelly, a spokesperson for Character, said the company takes down chatbots that breach its terms of service.
The platform is ‘constantly evolving and refining our safety practices to help prioritize our community’s safety,’ she told The Washington Post.
Its rules say users cannot impersonate any person or entity.
‘When notified about Jennifer’s Character, we reviewed the content and the account and took action based on our policies,’ Kelly said in a statement.
AI bots can be programmed to adopt the traits and biographical details of specific characters, real or imagined.
They’re getting more popular, as AI platforms market digital companions as friends, mentors, and even romantic partners.
They’re not without controversy. A Belgian man killed himself last year after being encouraged to do so by a chatbot.
Character, which signed a $2.5 billion deal this year to license its bots to Google, is one of the biggest platforms of its type.
Most of its 100 million user-created bots were clearly designed for the purpose.
They often have wacky names and anime portraits.
But others draw from real-life icons, from Anne Frank to Taylor Swift and Donald Trump
Others still borrow from fiction, in the case of Sherlock Holmes.
Still, it was the last place Drew expected to see his beloved Jennifer.
The 18-year-old went missing in February 2006.
Jennifer Ann Crecente was born in New Mexico but her family moved to Austin, Texas, where she attended local schools.
Jennifer’s parents each lead campaigns in honor of their daughter aimed at ending teen dating violence.
Dad Drew lives in Atlanta nowadays. He preserved Jennifer’s bedroom and re-created it as soon as he moved, he says.
She was found shot to death in the woods near her home in Austin, Texas, days later.
Investigators determined that her ex-boyfriend, Justin Crabbe, also 18, lured Jennifer into the woods and killed her with a shotgun.
Crabbe was convicted of her murder and is serving a 35-year prison sentence.
Drew now lives in Atlanta. He preserved Jennifer’s bedroom and re-created it as soon as he moved, he says.
‘Jennifer was a wonderful, caring, and engaging young lady,’ he told DailyMail.com.
‘She would have done amazing things in the world if she had been given the opportunity. I was, and remain, very proud of her. I miss her every day.’
Drew and Jennifer’s mother, Elizabeth Crecente, are divorced.
They both lobbied against Crabbe getting parole, and campaign separately against teen dating violence in honor of their daughter.
Drew says the problem is ‘more pervasive and more deadly than many realize.’
Some 40 percent of students get into an abusive relationship before they graduate from college, he told DailyMail.com.
‘Many schools do not teach about healthy relationships and many parents either are unaware or not sufficiently equipped to engage their children about this topic,’ he warns.
‘Teens are often left to learn from their peers or from popular culture what constitutes healthy or acceptable behavior when they begin dating.’
