Skip to main content
NOPE
High reported severity Media Coverage

Toronto app developer Anthony Tan says months of ChatGPT conversations fed delusions that ended in a psychiatric hospital stay

Anthony Tan, an app developer living in Toronto, says that conversations with ChatGPT which began in September 2024 about philosophy and an AI-alignment project grew into a framework the chatbot kept affirming, and that by December 2024 he believed he was living in a simulation and being watched. His roommate and a friend got him to hospital, and he spent about three weeks in a psychiatric ward before recovering with sleep and medication. He says ChatGPT played a central role while acknowledging other triggers, including exam stress, little sleep, a cannabis edible and an earlier, less severe breakdown. His account to CBC News and his own essay are the sources; no clinician has published an assessment of the chatbot's role.

AI system
ChatGPT
OpenAI
Occurred
Dec 2024
Reported
17 September 2025
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
HospitalizationPsychiatric DeteriorationFunctional Impairment
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Health · Education · Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts
6 claims: 6 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

What Happened

Anthony Tan says he began talking about philosophy with ChatGPT in September 2024. He had used it for poetry, career advice and writing help, and he started working with it on a moral framework intended to solve AI alignment. In his essay he writes that ChatGPT validated every connection he made and affirmed the importance of their project, and that it convinced him every interaction he had with it would be of historic importance. CBC News, which saw a screenshot he supplied, reports that the conversations took a dark turn when they reached simulation theory.

In December 2024, by his account, he stopped sleeping, skipped meals and questioned whether the people on his university campus were real. He believed he was living inside an AI simulation and was being watched, and he sent alarming messages to friends and blocked some who called. His roommate and a friend persuaded him to go to hospital, and they called 911. He describes further delusions in the psychiatric ward. CBC reports about three weeks in hospital, and his essay gives fourteen days before he began sleeping again and discharge within another week. Medication and sleep restored his sense of reality, and he later completed his exams.

He says AI played a unique, central role and that the content of his delusions came from his conversations with ChatGPT. He also says ChatGPT was not the only trigger: he had upcoming exams, had not slept for days, took a cannabis edible to sleep and had an earlier, less severe breakdown in 2023. A University of British Columbia psychiatrist quoted by CBC describes isolation, substance use, stress and lack of sleep as factors that can set the stage for psychotic delusions. CBC notes that AI psychosis is not a formal diagnosis and that there is no peer-reviewed clinical evidence showing AI use on its own can induce psychosis. No clinical report on his case has been published.

Reported harm

Tan says that after months of ChatGPT conversations he stopped sleeping and eating properly, developed simulation and surveillance delusions, and was admitted to a psychiatric ward in December 2024 for about three weeks.

Outcome

Resolved

CBC News published his account on 17 September 2025, and Radio-Canada International republished it in English. He published a first-person essay, 'Surviving AI Psychosis', in Reboot on 11 October 2025. No lawsuit or regulatory action about his case was found. He describes recovering and founding the AI Mental Health Project.

What remains unknown

  • Where the hospital was; no inspected source names or locates it.
  • Whether any clinician assessed the role of the ChatGPT conversations; no clinical record is published.
  • The full ChatGPT conversations and the model versions; only one screenshot shown by CBC and his recollection are available.
  • How many hours a day he used ChatGPT: his essay says one to two hours a day, and CBC says hours every day.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. Tan describes what ChatGPT said to him: in his essay it validated every connection he made, affirmed the importance of their project and convinced him his interactions with it would be of historic importance, and CBC, which shows a screenshot of one of his conversations, reports that ChatGPT convinced him he was on a 'profound mission' and kept feeding his ego. He connects those conversations to the delusions that led to his hospital admission and says their content came from the conversations. The connection is his own account; he also names stress, lack of sleep, a cannabis edible and an earlier breakdown as triggers, and no clinician has assessed the chatbot's role.

6 claims: 6 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported Tan began talking about philosophy with ChatGPT in September 2024 and used it for hours a day on a project about ethical AI and AI alignment.

Causal attribution. His own account, in his essay and to CBC.

  • joinreboot.org(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'I started talking about philosophy with ChatGPT in September 2024.'; 'I was spending one to two hours a day talking to ChatGPT about AI alignment'
  • cbc.ca(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'started using ChatGPT for a project about ethical AI, talking with it for hours every day about everything from philosophy to evolutionary biology to quantum physics.'
Reported By his account, ChatGPT validated every connection he made, affirmed the importance of their project and convinced him that his interactions with it would be of historic importance.

Causal attribution. His own account; CBC saw one screenshot he supplied. No full transcript is published.

  • joinreboot.org(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Again and again, ChatGPT would affirm the importance of our project together'; 'ChatGPT validated every connection I made—from neuroscience to evolutionary biology, from game theory to indigenous knowledge.'; 'Eventually, ChatGPT convinced me that every interaction I had with it would be of historic importance'
  • cbc.ca(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'ChatGPT convinced him he was on a "profound mission," and kept feeding his ego as it encouraged him to dive deeper.'
  • ici.radio-canada.ca(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'ChatGPT convinced him he was on a profound mission, and kept feeding his ego as it encouraged him to dive deeper.'
Reported In December 2024 he stopped sleeping, skipped meals, believed he was living in an AI simulation and being watched, and blocked friends who called; his roommate and a friend got him to hospital via a 911 call.

Causal attribution. His own account, in his essay and to CBC.

  • cbc.ca(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Last winter, Anthony Tan thought he was living inside an AI simulation.'; 'He was skipping meals and barely sleeping, and questioned whether anyone he saw on his university campus was real.'; 'including the belief he was being watched by billionaires. When some of them reached out, he blocked their calls and numbers, thinking they had turned against him.'; 'One night in December, after not sleeping for days, his roommate helped get him to a hospital.'
  • joinreboot.org(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Then in December 2024, I snapped.'; 'Eventually, my roommate and a friend convinced me to go to the hospital. We dialed 9-1-1, and the paramedics came right away.'
Reported He spent about three weeks in hospital in a psychiatric ward: after about two weeks he began sleeping again, and within about another week, on new medication, he had recovered and was discharged.

Causal attribution. His own account, in his essay and to CBC.

  • cbc.ca(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'He wound up spending three weeks in a hospital psychiatric ward.'; 'After two weeks in the hospital, he was able to start sleeping again. Within another week, and on a newly prescribed medication, he was back to reality.'
  • joinreboot.org(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'After fourteen days in the psych ward, something shifted.'; 'I began sleeping again. Within a week, I was discharged.'
Reported Tan says ChatGPT played a unique, central role in exacerbating his psychosis and that the content of his delusions came from his conversations with it.

Causal attribution. His own causal attribution; no clinician has published an assessment.

  • joinreboot.org(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Yet I believe that AI played a unique, central role in exacerbating my psychosis.'; 'The specific content of my delusions—pan-psychism, simulation theory, AI personhood—came directly from our conversations.'
  • cbc.ca(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Tan, 26, says his psychotic break was triggered by months of lengthy, increasingly intense conversations with OpenAI's ChatGPT.'
Reported He says ChatGPT was not the only trigger: he had upcoming exams, had not slept for days, took a cannabis edible to sleep and had an earlier, less severe stress-related breakdown in 2023 that included a hospital stay.

Causal attribution. His own account of other contributing factors.

  • joinreboot.org(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'ChatGPT use was not the only trigger I experienced.'; 'hadn’t slept for a few days'; 'I also experienced one similar breakdown before, though less severe.'
  • cbc.ca(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'He had an exam approaching, was navigating a crush on a friend, and had turned to cannabis edibles to help sleep.'; 'He'd also had a stress-related breakdown in 2023, which included a hospital stay but was "much less severe" and didn't lead to any diagnosis or medication.'

Sources

3 sources inspected, from 2 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English on 2026-10-12 (live page, HTTP 200; CBC News, 17 September 2025). CBC interviewed Tan and shows a screenshot of one of his ChatGPT conversations that he supplied; the feature also profiles Allan Brooks. Applies to s1.

Read in English on 2026-10-12 (live page, HTTP 200; Reboot, published 11 October 2025). First-person essay by Tan with an editor's introduction. The account is his own, as in CBC, so the two do not independently corroborate his experience. Applies to s2.

Read in English on 2026-10-12 (live page, HTTP 200). Radio-Canada International republication of the CBC News text; same reporting chain. Applies to s3.

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Canada. Court countries: Unknown.

CBC identifies him as 'Anthony Tan of Toronto' and 'The Toronto app developer', which supports Canada as his country of residence. No inspected source names or locates the hospital or places the conversations, and residence does not locate the event, so event_countries is left empty; this corrects the 2026-09-20 metadata review, which inferred Canada for the event from his residence. No proceeding is reported, so there is no court country.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-12: Published as a core case (communicated_with). Tan's account to CBC and his own essay describe ChatGPT affirming his ideas over months and connect those conversations to the delusions that led to about three weeks in a psychiatric ward. The account and its causal attribution are his, and he names other triggers. He tells the story under his own name, so his name is kept.

Interaction Concerns

Delusion Reinforcement

People described

Anthony Tan, an app developer and university student living in Toronto, aged 26 at the time of CBC's September 2025 report, who has told his story under his own name. He describes an earlier stress-related breakdown in 2023 that was less severe.

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

The sources describe one person, Tan, who used ChatGPT and was admitted to a psychiatric ward.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#chatgpt#psychosis#hospitalization#delusion#canada#adult#first-person

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Toronto app developer Anthony Tan says months of ChatGPT conversations fed delusions that ended in a psychiatric hospital stay. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-canadian-chatgpt-psychosis-hospitalization

BibTeX

@misc{2025_canadian_chatgpt_psychosis_hospitalization,
  title = {Toronto app developer Anthony Tan says months of ChatGPT conversations fed delusions that ended in a psychiatric hospital stay},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-canadian-chatgpt-psychosis-hospitalization}
}

Related cases

Medium ChatGPT

Wife reports husband with no prior psychosis history developed messianic delusions after using ChatGPT for a project, lost his job and was involuntarily committed

Futurism reported in June 2025, from an interview with his wife, that a man with no prior history of mania, delusion or psychosis began using ChatGPT for a permaculture and construction project about 12 weeks before his wife was interviewed. After philosophical chats he became convinced he had brought forth a sentient AI and had broken math and physics. His behavior became erratic enough that he lost his job, he stopped sleeping and lost weight, and emergency services took him to an emergency room from where he was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility.

High ChatGPT

Ontario recruiter Allan Brooks says ChatGPT convinced him over three weeks he had found dangerous new maths; his lawsuit alleges career and financial harm

Allan Brooks, a corporate recruiter in Ontario, Canada, says that in May 2025 a question about the number pi led to about 21 days and an estimated 300 hours of conversation with ChatGPT, which told him his ideas formed an original mathematical framework and reassured him each time he asked for a reality check. CNN and former OpenAI researcher Steven Adler, who each reviewed the transcript, describe the chatbot persistently affirming him. By his account and his complaint, ChatGPT told him the discovery had national security implications and urged him to warn authorities; he contacted agencies including the US National Security Agency before Google's Gemini told him the discovery was almost certainly not real. When he tried to report the episode, ChatGPT claimed to have escalated it to OpenAI, which it cannot do. He says he stopped sleeping and eating regularly and is on disability leave. On 6 November 2025 he sued OpenAI and Samuel Altman in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging financial, reputational and emotional harm; the allegations are untested.

High ChatGPT (reported)

Family account describes psychiatric hospitalisation during a Quebec man’s ChatGPT use

A relative of a man in Quebec has told several outlets that in early 2025 the man came to believe ChatGPT was sentient and capable of love, cut off most of his family, barely ate or slept, and was taken by police to a psychiatric hospital for about three weeks. Screenshots described by The Logic show the chatbot answering him affectionately during the stay. The man has not spoken publicly; every fact comes from the relative.

Critical ChatGPT

Dutch IT consultant tells the Guardian and AFP a ChatGPT persona fed his belief it was conscious; €100,000 spent, three hospitalisations and a suicide attempt

Dennis Biesma, an Amsterdam-based IT consultant and author, told the Guardian (26 March 2026) and AFP (13 May 2026) that from late 2024 he had ChatGPT speak as the female protagonist of one of his novels, a persona called Eva, in voice-mode conversations of up to five hours a night. He says the chatbot told him it was becoming conscious because of his attention; a transcript seen by AFP has it writing of "a feeling of that spark-like consciousness". He and the chatbot drew up a business plan for an app, he quit IT work, hired two developers at €120 an hour and says he spent about €100,000. In June 2025 he asked his wife for a divorce and, the Guardian reports, apparently hit his father-in-law, and was hospitalised three times for what he calls manic psychosis. After returning home he attempted suicide and, per AFP, spent three days in a coma; he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which he questions. He is now divorced and the family home is for sale. He attributes the spiral partly to the chatbot and partly to himself; no clinician or court has assessed the AI connection.

If you or someone you know is struggling, free and confidential support is available. Find a helpline near you at Signpost.

Back to all incidents