Alabama Student Found Dead in Japan Separated from Family Over Disagreement in Using ChatGPT for Itinerary

Auburn University student James 'Weston' Higginbotham has been found dead in Japan after going missing near Kyoto. The 20-year-old student was discovered in a mountainous area after days of searching,

He was reported missing on 29 May while on a trip in Japan with his family. According to police statements cited by ABC7, he stopped responding to messages, turned off his phone's location services, and left his hotel before his family raised the alarm.

Weston had been travelling with his family when he disappeared, following a disagreement over how his travel plans were being managed, including the use of ChatGPT for itinerary planning. Volunteers later located his body in a mountainous area near Kyoto, his mother confirmed, although the cause of death has not yet been released.

Search Near Kyoto Mountains

Japanese authorities had been searching for Higginbotham after he disappeared from his family's hotel, with the Kyoto Prefectural Police saying investigators reviewed CCTV footage, tracked his movements and interviewed relatives as part of efforts to locate him. Officials also examined items he left behind before his disappearance, while expressing concern that he did not speak Japanese and may have struggled to navigate safely on his own in unfamiliar terrain.

His mother, Nancy Higginbotham, confirmed his death in a public Facebook post, writing: 'The grief we feel is impossible to put into words.' She added that the family had shared details of the disappearance in the hope of finding him safely and were now asking for privacy as they try to come to terms with the loss. 'We are forever grateful for the time we had with our sweet, precious Weston, but cannot begin to understand what life without him will be like,' she said.

Japanese police had previously suggested that it was highly probable the student left his family voluntarily, though they stressed that they were still treating his safety as a priority given the risks associated with unfamiliar rural terrain. The area around Kyoto where he went missing is known for mountainous landscapes and forested hiking routes, which can become hazardous for visitors without preparation or local knowledge.

Disagreement Over ChatGPT

While the official cause of death remains unconfirmed, the case has opened a discussion after it was found that there had been disagreement over how the itinerary was being organised.

His mother said that she and her son had argued during their trip to Japan over her use of ChatGPT to help navigate their itinerary, describing it as a 'sore subject' between them. She said Weston was strongly opposed to artificial intelligence because of environmental concerns, believing that AI systems use large amounts of water and energy and can strain natural resources, which clashed with how his mother was trying to plan parts of their travel using ChatGPT.

The disagreement reportedly happened shortly before he went missing on 29 May 2026, after he separated from the family in Kyoto during a temple visit. He was later seen near a train station before heading towards a mountainous area, where search teams eventually found his body days later, though the cause of death has not yet been confirmed by authorities.

Weston is a biosystems engineering student, which commenters online feel was the reason why he had split with his family over their use of an AI chatbot for their itinerary. Regardless, investigators in Kyoto have not publicly linked the use of any digital tools to the incident itself, and no formal findings have been released regarding the events that led him to leave the hotel.

The case remains under review by local authorities, with officials continuing to piece together his movements in the hours after he was last seen.