Bengaluru Developer Faces Death Threats over AI Wedding Buffet Tool

What began as a lighthearted side experiment soon spiraled into something far darker for a Bengaluru-based software engineer. The developer, known as Pankaj on X, claims he began receiving death threats after unveiling an AI-driven application inspired by Indian wedding buffets.

According to Pankaj, the controversy ignited when a post about his weekend prototype gained unexpected traction online. What he anticipated would be playful banter or routine critique quickly mutated into a torrent of hostility. The backlash, he says, included not only harsh public commentary but also private messages that allegedly contained explicit threats, some even referencing his family.

In a sequence of candid posts, Pankaj expressed bewilderment at the scale and severity of the reaction. He clarified that he harbors no resentment toward satire or skepticism. In fact, he admitted to often poking fun at his own ideas. However, he drew a firm line at intimidation. “Mock the concept, roast the app, question the logic, that’s fine,” he implied. “But threatening someone’s life over a casual tech experiment? That’s disproportionate.”

He emphasized that this was not a case of isolated abuse from a single anonymous account. Rather, he claimed that dozens of individuals had engaged in vitriolic messaging. While social platforms offer the option to block offenders, he suggested that the sheer venom of the exchanges rendered the situation unsettling. Screenshots of the alleged direct messages were shared to substantiate his account.

When asked what may have provoked such animosity, Pankaj pointed to accusations leveled against him by critics. Some detractors argued that he was trivializing artificial intelligence by deploying it for what they deemed a frivolous purpose. Others went further, alleging that creating “non-essential” AI tools contributes indirectly to environmental degradation due to the computational resources involved.

indian wedding buffet is a scam. i always leave regretting something. so i built BuffetGPT 😠

an ai agent that scans entire buffet and gives you a game plan.

it uses computer vision to detect every dish, then optimizes what to eat, what to skip, and how much based on actual… pic.twitter.com/yLxEf17LSJ

— Pankaj (@the2ndfloorguy) February 6, 2026

The irony lies in the modest ambition of the project. It was described as a playful, culturally rooted concept, an application centered around the elaborate spreads typical of Indian weddings. Yet, in the hyper-reactive ecosystem of social media, even innocuous innovations can become lightning rods for outrage.

This episode underscores a broader phenomenon: the volatility of digital discourse. The democratization of opinion, while empowering, often collapses nuance. Criticism morphs into condemnation; disagreement escalates into hostility. For creators experimenting at the intersection of culture and code, the line between feedback and fury can be alarmingly thin.

Pankaj’s experience serves as a reminder that innovation, no matter how whimsical, should not invite intimidation. Debate is inevitable in the tech world. Threats, however, signal something far more corrosive than disagreement: a breakdown in basic civility.