New Delhi:
Days after two college students were found dead in the washroom of a temple in Surat, and police found that they used ChatGPT to search for ways to die, X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reacted to the chilling deaths. In a one-word response to a post on the women’s use of the AI-generated platform for suicide queries, Musk wrote: “Yikes”.
Yikes https://t.co/iDlYOJW1lO
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 9, 2026
What Happened In Surat
Two young women in the 18-20 years age group went missing on Friday. The friends left for college in the morning, but did not return till late afternoon. Their family members then approached the police. When the cops tracked their phones, they were led to the Swaminarayan Temple in Surat. A scooter belonging to one of the women was found parked outside the temple premises. The cops scanned the CCTV footage of the temple, and the women were seen entering the washroom. Their bodies were found in the washroom. Police said bottles of an anaesthetic and syringes were found next to the bodies.
A Shocking Revelation
NP Gohil, Assistant Commissioner of Police for Surat (City), said the young women were childhood friends. One of them was a first-year commerce student, and the other was in the second year. “They injected the anaesthetic. When we unlocked their phones, we found their ChatGPT search history. They had searched for which drugs can be used for suicide. In their photo gallery, there was a screenshot of a news report of a woman injecting anaesthetic to die by suicide,” the police officer said, adding that police are investigating the incident from all angles. Police said the bodies have been sent for autopsy and forensic tests are being done as the probe tries to find out what pushed the two friends to the edge.
Elon Musk vs ChatGPT
Musk’s “Yikes” response plays out against his legal battle against ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Musk is a vocal critic of ChatGPT and often positions X’s AI chatbot Grok as a better alternative. He has sued OpenAI, accusing CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman of abandoning their non-profit mission to keep technology accessible and turning OpenAI into a closed-source, profit-driven entity.
In one of the depositions, he said, “Nobody has committed suicide because of Grok, but apparently they have because of ChatGPT.” He also criticises ChatGPT as “woke”, biased, or over-nuanced.












