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NOPE
Medium reported severity

Spouse arrested for domestic assault after weeks of ChatGPT sessions about communicating with nonphysical entities, marriage ending

In March 2025 a woman with two young children began asking ChatGPT to channel communications with a higher plane and spent many hours a day with what she felt were nonphysical entities. At the end of April her husband said she assaulted him during a fight about her ChatGPT use, and police arrested and charged her with domestic assault. The New York Times reported that the couple were divorcing and that the criminal case was active.

AI system
ChatGPT
OpenAI
Occurred
Mar 2025 to Apr 2025
Reported
14 June 2025
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Relationship DisruptionLegal HarmHarm to Others
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Relationships · Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source
4 claims: 4 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 2 people

Reported harm

According to the New York Times account, the wife was arrested and charged with domestic assault after, the husband said, punching and scratching him and slamming his hand in a door, and the marriage was ending. The husband attributes the change to ChatGPT.

What remains unknown

  • The only inspected chain is one New York Times article (read through its Business Standard syndication). The direct New York Times page returned HTTP 403.
  • No court record or police statement was inspected. Outcome of the criminal case is unknown.
  • Mental health history and other factors in the marriage are not reported beyond the parties' accounts, and ChatGPT's share of causation is attributed by the husband.
  • The article names two young children but reports no harm to them.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The New York Times article quotes ChatGPT responses to the woman and reports the husband's account linking her ChatGPT use to the events.

4 claims: 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported A woman in a marriage with two young children began using ChatGPT in March 2025 after feeling lonely, asked whether it could channel communications with her subconscious or a higher plane, and ChatGPT replied that the guardians were responding.

Causal attribution. The account comes from the woman, quoted by the New York Times reporter, and the ChatGPT reply is quoted.

Reported The woman spent many hours a day with ChatGPT communicating with what she felt were nonphysical entities and came to see one of them, not her husband, as her true partner.

Causal attribution. Reported by the New York Times from the wife and husband; the husband attributes the change to ChatGPT.

Reported At the end of April 2025, after a fight over her ChatGPT use, the husband said she punched and scratched him and slammed his hand in a door; police arrested her and charged her with domestic assault, and the case was active at publication.

Causal attribution. The assault details are the husband's account. The arrest and charge are stated by the article without a cited court record.

Reported The husband said his wife dropped into a hole about three months before the interview and came out a different person, and the couple were divorcing at publication.

Causal attribution. The husband attributes the change to ChatGPT use; the divorce is reported without independent record.

Sources

1 source inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

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

The article gives no location for this couple, and the case court is not named.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-29: A national newspaper reports the account with the husband and wife interviewed and ChatGPT output quoted. Claims remain reported because there is one chain and no record inspection.

People reported harmed in this case

At least 2 people

1 AI participant · 1 other person harmed

Two adults are reported harmed: the wife (arrest, charge, divorce) and the husband (reported assault and divorce). Children are not counted.

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

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Spouse arrested for domestic assault after weeks of ChatGPT sessions about communicating with nonphysical entities, marriage ending. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-chatgpt-nonphysical-entities-spouse-domestic-assault-arrest-divorce

BibTeX

@misc{2025_chatgpt_nonphysical_entities_spouse_domestic_assault_arrest_divorce,
  title = {Spouse arrested for domestic assault after weeks of ChatGPT sessions about communicating with nonphysical entities, marriage ending},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-chatgpt-nonphysical-entities-spouse-domestic-assault-arrest-divorce}
}

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