Sutherland Local Court heard on Monday that Thackray told the Claude chatbot he planned to shoot several children at a childcare centre near his home, allegedly referencing Naveed Akram, the man accused of the Bondi Beach attack last December in which 15 people were killed.
According to a police facts sheet tendered to the court, Thackray allegedly told the chatbot he would "go down to the local Westfield right now and shoot up the local daycare".
Prosecutors argued there would be a "catastrophic" outcome if Thackray were released, telling the court: "What he intends to do is start murdering people in Sydney just like the [alleged] terrorist did in Bondi. We're understanding what's in his mind with his interactions with the chatbot."
Thackray's lawyer, Danilo Rajkovic, said his client had gone on a "stress and frustration induced tirade" after trying to use Claude to help treat an ear infection. "There was no weight behind what he was saying," Rajkovic said.
The court heard Thackray did not instruct the chatbot to issue threats to any person or organisation and believed he was having the interaction privately in his own home. He had been using Claude's voice mode, which allows spoken conversations with the chatbot, and had requested a review after his account was suspended.
Rajkovic said Thackray, who is studying international relations, has no criminal history and has lived in Australia for more than 17 years. He said he was confident detectives who seized his electronic devices on Sunday would find no evidence of radical indoctrination or ideological motivation.
Thackray will return to court pending the outcome of the mental health assessment. Anthropic, the developer of Claude, has been contacted for comment.