‘Will kill you if I see you’: Bengaluru techie faces online abuse, alleges death threat over an AI buffet app

A Bengaluru-based tech professional has claimed that he received death threats on social media after building an AI-powered tool for Indian wedding buffets as a side project. The developer, who goes by the name Pankaj on X, said the backlash began after a post about the app went viral.

In a series of posts, Pankaj described the responses as deeply disturbing, alleging that several direct messages included threats to his life and comments targeting his family.

“Man, I'm literally getting DEATH THREATS for building a buffet app. I build useless stupid projects for fun. I'm not curing cancer here. Had a funny idea, built it, shared on x. It went viral. Now people are DMing me ‘I hope you die’ ‘I'll kill you if I see you’ and s**t about my family. For a buffet app. A joke.” “I can block and move on sure. But why go this low? What is wrong with some of you? Not cool.”

‘Troll me all you want'

The techie clarified that criticism did not bother him, but the nature of the messages crossed a line. “Troll me all you want. Make fun of my stupid ideas. I literally do it myself. But death threats? not 1-2 people. Tens. You don't know what someone is going thru. and you're sending this over what? since when did we start sending death threats over silly weekend projects??????,” he wrote.

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He also shared screenshots of some of the messages he claimed to have received, though their authenticity could not be independently verified.

Why did the app trigger such backlash?

Responding to questions from users, Pankaj said some critics accused him of “wasting AI” and harming the environment by building what they called unnecessary projects.

“Apparently, some people are not happy that I'm ‘wasting ai’ and causing environmental damage by building useless things,” he wrote while replying to a comment.

Social media reacts

Several users expressed support, urging him to block abusive accounts and continue working on his projects.

One user commented, “Free and unhindered access to the internet for those with declining mental health (there’s no other way I can frame this if someone's default reaction to a fun post is death threats). I’ve never once wished death or ill fate on even my worst enemies. It is definitely not natural and is sociopathic.”

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Another wrote, “Block and move on - don’t simmer on it, it will affect you negatively.

“Brother, just mute them or block them. You are literally doing a great job with your experience. Just avoid these negative thoughts. Those are people who can't do s**t in their life. This is just jealousy. Keep building”, commented another user.

AI and environmental concerns

As per a 2025 report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), “Rapid development and deployment of powerful generative AI models comes with environmental consequences, including increased electricity demand and water consumption.”

“The computational power required to train generative AI models that often have billions of parameters, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, can demand a staggering amount of electricity, which leads to increased carbon dioxide emissions and pressures on the electric grid”, the report highlighted.

“Beyond electricity demands, a great deal of water is needed to cool the hardware used for training, deploying, and fine-tuning generative AI models, which can strain municipal water supplies and disrupt local ecosystems.”