Man arrested for bomb and murder threats via Taipei Metro AI chatbot
A 28-year-old man from Changhua County reportedly sent five threatening messages via the Taipei Metro AI chatbot between March 29 and April 6, 2026, threatening to kill people and set off bombs. Police arrested him on April 15, and the court approved his detention. The man had previously made similar threats against rail services in February.
What happened
Between 3 March 29 and April 6, 2026, a 28-year-old man from Lukang, Changhua County surnamed Kuo left five threatening text messages on the Taipei Metro AI customer service chatbot saying 'I want to kill people, commit arson, and set off bombs', despite not completing OTP verification.
Police traced the messages through communications records and arrested Kuo on April 15, 2026 at his home in Changhua. Kuo confessed to having anxiety and bipolar disorder and said he could not resist sending the messages.
Reported impact
The threatening messages caused panic and put pressure on the Taipei Metro operations team and frontline staff, though no bombs were found and no actual violence occurred.
Index analysis
The chatbot's moderation system allowed the threatening messages to reach the backend despite not being fully sent by the user, indicating a gap in content filtering or security procedures.
Governance controls
Taipei Metro announced on its AI chatbot that all conversation records are kept on file and users should not send malicious messages. The company filed a police report when the threats were discovered.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.