Missing US student who left family after ChatGPT dispute found dead near Kyoto

James “Weston” Higginbotham, a 20-year-old environmentalist, was found by the police on June 6 after vanishing on May 29.

He had disagreed with his mother over her use of ChatGPT to plan the family’s trip. Devoted to sustainable living, he objected to the natural resources that AI systems consume, his mother, Nancy Higginbotham, told NBC News. He then set off on his own and stopped answering messages.

Kyoto Prefectural Police told ABC News on June 4 that they believed it was highly probable Weston had left his family intentionally, but said they remained concerned for his safety. His parents had been tracking his location on the Life360 app and watched him board a train and visit several stores before the location sharing switched off, which his mother said was out of character for him.

Weston was last seen on surveillance footage walking alone through the city’s Yamashina area toward a hiking trail in the woods. Given his love of hiking and the camera’s position near the trailhead, police began searching the forest June 2, but a storm bringing heavy rain and wind that night slowed the effort and deepened fears for his safety in the mountains.

A 72-hour police search involving more than 100 officers, K-9 units and helicopters ended June 5 without finding him, according to the family. The next day, the Higginbothams organized their own search with local residents and a hired search-and-rescue team, concentrating on stretches of the Yamashina forest that police had not covered.

Volunteers found his body at about 2:35 p.m. on June 6. No foul play is suspected, Kyoto police said, and they will not disclose a cause of death.

“Our family is heartbroken to share that Weston was found deceased by a volunteer search-and-rescue group in a mountainous area outside of Kyoto. The grief we feel is impossible to put into words,” the family wrote in a social media post.

Auburn University President Christopher Roberts said the school had lost “a valued member of the Auburn Family,” extending condolences to the family.

Weston was a junior biosystems engineering major at Auburn, the university said, and had built his life around protecting the natural world. He became vegan about a year ago and rarely traveled without a book; on this trip he carried one about butterflies in his back pocket.

“He just loves to go outside and go for a walk at a trail or go for a small hike, no matter what time of day,” his mother told CNN on June 5. “That’s just fun to him.”

Her son’s goal in life, she said, was to travel to “all of these amazing mountains and places where he can embed himself in different cultures.”