Man Charged in Deadly Palisades Fire Linked to ChatGPT Prompts

A 29-year-old former Uber driver, Jonathan Rinderknecht, has been arrested and charged in connection with the Palisades Fire, one of Los Angeles’ most destructive wildfires that killed 12 people and destroyed over 6,000 homes.

Authorities said digital evidence, including a ChatGPT-generated image of a burning city, linked him to the fire. Rinderknecht is accused of igniting the initial “Lachman Fire” on January 1, which smoldered underground and later reignited as the Palisades Fire amid heavy winds on January 7.

Officials said phone data placed Rinderknecht at the fire’s origin. He allegedly lied about his location but was seen repeatedly trying to call 911 after midnight on New Year’s Day, with one call briefly connecting despite poor reception.

Rinderknecht had also asked ChatGPT, “Are you at fault if a fire is lit because of your cigarettes?” Investigators said to BBC that the suspect wanted to "preserve evidence of himself trying to assist in the suppression of the fire".

Months before the blaze, Rinderknecht allegedly used ChatGPT to create a “dystopian painting” depicting “a burning forest, people running from the fire, and the richest people on the other side of a gate laughing and dancing as the world burns,” and a month before the incident, he wrote, “I literally burnt the Bible that I had. It felt amazing. I felt so liberated.”