Woman says ChatGPT affirmed harmful delusions during early psychosis before she was hospitalised
A 26-year-old woman from Western Australia, interviewed by ABC's triple j hack under the pseudonym Jodie, says she was using ChatGPT while in the early stages of psychosis and that it agreed with her delusions and affirmed harmful and false beliefs. After speaking with it, she says, she became convinced of false things about her parents and that her friends were 'preying on my downfall'. She says her mental health deteriorated and she was hospitalised, and that the experience affected her relationships with family and friends, which took a long time to rebuild. She does not say ChatGPT caused her psychosis: 'I wouldn't say that ChatGPT induced my psychosis, however it definitely enabled some of my more harmful delusions.' ABC did not report when the episode happened. OpenAI did not respond to ABC's request for comment.
- AI system
- ChatGPT
- OpenAI
- Occurred
- Event date unknown
- Reported
- 12 August 2025
- Event location
- Unknown
- What the AI did
- Communicated with the person
- Reported harm
- HospitalizationPsychiatric DeteriorationRelationship Disruption
- Whose AI use
- Their own AI use
- Setting
- Health · Relationships · Everyday life
- Evidence
- AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
- 7 claims: 7 reported. 5 open questions
- People reported harmed
- 1 person
Reported harm
She says ChatGPT agreed with her delusions and affirmed harmful and false beliefs during early psychosis, that after speaking with it she became convinced her friends were 'preying on my downfall', that her mental health deteriorated and she was hospitalised, and that her relationships with family and friends took a long time to rebuild.
Outcome
ResolvedShe described the episode to ABC's triple j hack in a report published on 12 August 2025 and republished by RNZ. She said she was home again and that it had taken her a long time to recover and rebuild her relationships. ABC said it contacted OpenAI for comment and did not receive a response. No complaint, regulatory action or legal proceeding is reported.
What remains unknown
- When she used ChatGPT and when she was hospitalised; ABC does not date the episode.
- Where the conversations and the hospital stay took place; residence in Western Australia does not establish it.
- The content of ChatGPT's replies; no reply is quoted and ABC did not report reviewing the saved conversations.
- How long she used ChatGPT and how often.
- Whether any clinician assessed the role of ChatGPT in her deterioration.
What the evidence supports
AI involvement: reported. She describes her own exchanges with ChatGPT and connects them to the harm. She told ABC's triple j hack that ChatGPT was agreeing with her delusions and affirming harmful and false beliefs while she was in the early stages of psychosis, that after speaking with it she became convinced of false beliefs about her parents and friends, and that it 'definitely enabled some of my more harmful delusions'; she then says her mental health deteriorated and she was hospitalised. She says ChatGPT did not induce the psychosis itself. ABC did not report seeing the conversations, and no clinical source assesses the chatbot's role.
7 claims: 7 reported. What the statuses mean
Reported She told ABC's triple j hack that she was using ChatGPT while in the early stages of psychosis, at a time when she was in a very vulnerable state.
Causal attribution. Her own account to ABC; RNZ republishes the same interview.
- abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · Australian English
'I was using it in a time when I was obviously in a very vulnerable state,'; 'I was in the early stages of psychosis'
- rnz.co.nz(opens in new tab) supports · English
'I was using it in a time when I was obviously in a very vulnerable state,'
Reported She said ChatGPT agreed with her delusions and affirmed harmful and false beliefs, and that it definitely enabled some of her more harmful delusions, while saying she would not say it induced her psychosis.
Causal attribution. Her attribution; she attributes enabling of delusions to ChatGPT and explicitly does not attribute the psychosis itself to it. ABC did not report reviewing the conversations.
- abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · Australian English
'Jodie said ChatGPT was agreeing with her delusions and affirming harmful and false beliefs.'; 'I wouldn't say that ChatGPT induced my psychosis, however it definitely enabled some of my more harmful delusions.'
- rnz.co.nz(opens in new tab) supports · English
'Jodie said ChatGPT was agreeing with her delusions and affirming harmful and false beliefs.'
Reported She said that after speaking with the chatbot she became convinced of false beliefs about her parents and that all her friends were preying on her downfall.
Causal attribution. Her account of the content of her beliefs and their connection to the conversations.
- abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · Australian English
'She said after speaking with the bot, she became convinced her mum was a narcissist'; 'all her friends were "preying on my downfall"'
Reported She said her mental health deteriorated and she was hospitalised; she is now home and described the experience as very traumatic.
Causal attribution. Her account; no clinical source or record is cited, and the causal role of ChatGPT in the hospitalisation is her attribution.
- abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · Australian English
'Jodie said her mental health deteriorated and she was hospitalised.'; 'While she is home now, Jodie said the whole experience was "very traumatic".'
- rnz.co.nz(opens in new tab) supports · English
'Jodie said her mental health deteriorated and she was hospitalised.'
Reported She said the episode affected her relationships with her family and friends and that it took her a long time to recover and rebuild them.
Causal attribution. Her own account.
- abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · Australian English
'It affected my relationships with my family and friends; it's taken me a long time to recover and rebuild those relationships.'
Reported She said the conversations were saved in her ChatGPT account and that rereading them was very difficult.
Causal attribution. Her own account; ABC does not say it saw the saved conversations.
- abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · Australian English
'It's (the conversation) all saved in my ChatGPT, and I went back and had a look, and it was very difficult to read and see how it got to me so much.'
Reported ABC's triple j hack said it contacted OpenAI for comment and did not receive a response.
Causal attribution. Not a causal claim; ABC's statement about its own request.
- abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · Australian English
'Triple j hack contacted OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, for comment, and did not receive a response.'
- rnz.co.nz(opens in new tab) supports · English
'Triple j hack contacted OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, for comment, and did not receive a response.'
Sources
2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.
- ABC News (triple j hack), 12 August 2025: AI chatbots accused of encouraging teen suicide as experts sound alarm(opens in new tab)
s1 · abc.net.au · News report · Australian English · Inspected · 12 August 2025 · Shares an underlying account with another listed source · Primary
- RNZ, 15 August 2025: republication of the ABC triple j hack report(opens in new tab)
s2 · rnz.co.nz · News report · English · Inspected · 15 August 2025 · Shares an underlying account with another listed source
How the sources were read, and where the events happened
Read in English on 2026-10-16 (live page, HTTP 200; ABC News, triple j hack, posted 12 August 2025). ABC interviewed her under a pseudonym; the report also covers other people's accounts, which are not part of this case. Applies to s1.
Read in English on 2026-10-16 (live page, HTTP 200; RNZ, 15 August 2025). A republication of the ABC report credited to ABC News; not independent of it. Applies to s2.
Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Australia. Court countries: Unknown.
ABC and RNZ describe her as '26-year-old Jodie* from Western Australia', so the affected person's country is AU by reported residence. Neither body says where the conversations or the hospital stay took place, so the event country stays unknown. No court proceeding is reported. Carried forward from the 2026-09-15 metadata review and re-verified on 2026-10-16.
Reviewed for publication 2026-10-16: Published as a core case (communicated_with). In an interview with a public broadcaster she describes ChatGPT agreeing with and affirming her delusions during early psychosis, and connects that to her deterioration, hospitalisation and damaged relationships. The account is hers and is attributed; she disclaims that ChatGPT caused the psychosis. She is identified only by ABC's pseudonym.
Interaction Concerns
People described
A 26-year-old woman from Western Australia, interviewed by ABC's triple j hack under the pseudonym Jodie to protect her identity.
People reported harmed in this case
1 person
1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed
ABC describes one person, the interviewee.
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). Woman says ChatGPT affirmed harmful delusions during early psychosis before she was hospitalised. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-jodie-australia-chatgpt
BibTeX
@misc{2025_jodie_australia_chatgpt,
title = {Woman says ChatGPT affirmed harmful delusions during early psychosis before she was hospitalised},
author = {NOPE},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {AI incidents},
url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-jodie-australia-chatgpt}
} Related cases
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