ChatGPT Pushed Back on LA Fire Suspect’s Vision of Burning City

The man accused of setting the massive Palisades Fire in Los Angeles repeatedly asked ChatGPT to create images of a city engulfed in flames and floods, and cursed at OpenAI’s chatbot when it told him the scenery he envisioned was too violent, jurors at his trial were told Thursday.

Months before Jonathan Rinderknecht allegedly set the Jan. 1, 2025, brush fire that authorities say later morphed into the blaze that destroyed one of the city’s richest neighborhoods, he repeatedly instructed the chatbot to create images of wealth inequality featuring mass devastation, according to a federal agent who helped retrieve ...