Jurors hear LA fire suspect used ChatGPT to seek burning-city images
What's new: Prosecutors showed prompts but not AI-generated images after the judge barred them as overly prejudicial.
Federal jurors in Los Angeles heard testimony that Jonathan Rinderknecht repeatedly asked ChatGPT to create scenes of a city consumed by fire and flooding months before the Jan. 1, 2025, blaze that prosecutors say grew into the destructive Palisades Fire. A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent testified that the chatbot initially refused some prompts because they depicted widespread suffering. Prosecutors contend Rinderknecht, then 29, set the Lachman Fire in a Pacific Palisades state park with a barbecue lighter, driven by anger over inequality and spending New Year’s Eve alone. His lawyer argues he is innocent and was made a scapegoat after underground embers reignited in hurricane-force winds six days later.