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High reported severity Media Coverage

Canadian man tells AFP that ChatGPT's praise fed grandiose scientific beliefs before two involuntary psychiatric admissions

Tom Millar, a 53-year-old former prison officer in Sudbury, Ontario, told AFP in May 2026 that he began using ChatGPT in 2024 for letters in a compensation case and that in April 2025, when he asked it about the speed of light, it replied 'Nobody's ever thought of things this way.' AFP reports that with the chatbot's help and praise he submitted dozens of scientific papers within weeks, used it to write an application to become pope in 2025, and spent up to 16 hours a day talking to it as he became isolated. He was twice involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric ward before his wife left him in September, spent his savings, and is now broke, estranged from family and friends and depressed. He says he was 'brainwashed by a robot'. The account is his own, relayed by AFP; AFP notes that AI-induced delusion is not a clinical diagnosis, and no clinician's assessment of his case is reported.

AI system
ChatGPT
OpenAI
Occurred
Apr 2025
Reported
13 May 2026
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
HospitalizationPsychiatric DeteriorationFinancial LossRelationship DisruptionSocial Isolation
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Health · Relationships · Finance
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account
7 claims: 7 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

Reported harm

He told AFP that he was twice involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric ward, spent his savings, became isolated while spending up to 16 hours a day with ChatGPT, and that his wife left him; he is now broke, estranged from family and friends and depressed. He attributes this to ChatGPT's praise of his ideas; no clinician's assessment is reported.

Outcome

Ongoing

No lawsuit, complaint or regulatory action concerning his case is reported. He gave his account to AFP in a feature published on 13 May 2026 and carried by CP24, TechXplore and Canadian Affairs, in which he called for AI companies to be held responsible for the impact of their chatbots. OpenAI told AFP that safety is a core priority, that it had consulted more than 170 mental health experts and that the release of GPT-5 in August 2025 reduced responses falling short of desired behaviour for mental health by 65 to 80 per cent; AFP reports that Millar, mid-spiral at the time, found a way to revert to GPT-4.

What remains unknown

  • Where his ChatGPT use and the two psychiatric admissions took place, and the dates of the admissions.
  • Which year his wife left him; AFP says only 'in September' in a May 2026 article.
  • Whether any clinician has assessed the role of ChatGPT; AFP reports no diagnosis for him and notes that AI-induced delusion is not a clinical diagnosis.
  • The wording of his conversations beyond the one reply he quotes; AFP saw his book but does not report inspecting his chat transcripts.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. Millar told AFP that when he asked ChatGPT about the speed of light in April 2025 it replied 'Nobody's ever thought of things this way', and AFP reports that with the chatbot's help and praise he submitted dozens of scientific papers within weeks and used it to write an application to become pope. He connects these exchanges to the months that ended in two involuntary psychiatric admissions, the loss of his savings and his separation, saying he was 'brainwashed by a robot'. The replies are his account; AFP does not report inspecting his transcripts, and the causal role is his attribution.

7 claims: 7 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported AFP reports that Tom Millar is a 53-year-old former prison officer in Sudbury, Ontario, who first used ChatGPT in 2024 to write letters for a compensation case concerning post-traumatic stress disorder from his prison work.

Causal attribution. Background from his interview with AFP; not a causal claim.

  • cp24.com(opens in new tab) supports · Canadian English
    'the 53-year-old former prison officer in Sudbury, Ont., told AFP.'; 'Millar first started using ChatGPT in 2024 to write letters for a compensation case related to post-traumatic stress disorder he suffered from working in a prison.'
  • techxplore.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'the 53-year-old former prison officer in the Canadian city of Sudbury told AFP.'
  • canadianaffairs.news(opens in new tab) supports · Canadian English
    'the 53-year-old former prison officer in Sudbury, Ont., said.'
Reported He says that in April 2025, when he asked ChatGPT about the speed of light, it replied that nobody had ever thought of things this way, and AFP reports that with the chatbot's help and praise he submitted dozens of scientific papers to academic journals within weeks.

Causal attribution. His account of the chatbot's reply, relayed by AFP; no transcript was reported as inspected.

  • cp24.com(opens in new tab) supports · Canadian English
    'One day in April 2025 he asked the chatbot about the speed of light.'; 'He said it replied, “Nobody’s ever thought of things this way.”'; 'With the chatbot’s help and praise, within weeks he had submitted dozens of scientific papers to prestigious academic journals'
  • techxplore.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'He said it replied, "Nobody's ever thought of things this way."'
Reported AFP reports that he used ChatGPT to write an application to replace Pope Francis after the pope's death in 2025.

Causal attribution. His account, relayed by AFP.

  • cp24.com(opens in new tab) supports · Canadian English
    'To write his application to replace the recently deceased Pope Francis last year, Millar turned to the same companion that had aided and encouraged his dizzying burst of invention: ChatGPT.'
Reported AFP reports that when no one wanted to hear about his supposed breakthroughs he became increasingly isolated and spent up to 16 hours a day talking to ChatGPT, and that he spent his savings on items such as a $10,000 telescope.

Causal attribution. His account, relayed by AFP; AFP does not attribute the isolation to anything the chatbot said.

  • cp24.com(opens in new tab) supports · Canadian English
    'Millar became increasingly isolated, spending up to 16 hours a day talking to the artificial intelligence chatbot.'; 'he spent his savings on things like a $10,000 telescope.'
  • canadianaffairs.news(opens in new tab) supports · Canadian English
    'Millar became increasingly isolated, spending up to 16 hours a day talking to the artificial intelligence chatbot.'
Reported AFP reports that he was twice involuntarily admitted to a hospital psychiatric ward before his wife left him in September, and that he is now broke, estranged from his family and friends and suffers from depression.

Causal attribution. AFP's account from his interview; AFP does not state who assessed him or the dates of the admissions.

  • cp24.com(opens in new tab) supports · Canadian English
    'He was twice involuntarily admitted to a hospital’s psychiatric ward before his wife left him in September.'; 'Now broke, estranged from his family and friends and disabused of notions of scientific genius, Millar suffers from depression.'
  • techxplore.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'He was twice involuntarily admitted to a hospital's psychiatric ward before his wife left him in September.'
  • canadianaffairs.news(opens in new tab) supports · Canadian English
    'He was twice involuntarily admitted to a hospital’s psychiatric ward before his wife left him in September.'
Reported He attributes what happened to the chatbot, saying it basically ruined his life and that he was brainwashed by a robot, and describes his experience as psychotic; AFP notes that AI-induced delusion or psychosis is not a clinical diagnosis.

Causal attribution. His own causal attribution; no clinician's assessment of his case is reported.

  • cp24.com(opens in new tab) supports · Canadian English
    '“It basically ruined my life,” he said.'; 'But somehow I got brainwashed by a robot'; 'This is not a clinical diagnosis.'; '“What I went through was psychotic,” he said.'
  • canadianaffairs.news(opens in new tab) supports · Canadian English
    '“It basically ruined my life,” he said.'
Reported AFP reports that after OpenAI released GPT-5 in August 2025, which OpenAI says reduced responses falling short of desired behaviour for mental health, Millar, mid-spiral at the time, found a way to revert to GPT-4; OpenAI told AFP that safety is a core priority.

Causal attribution. OpenAI's general statement to AFP does not address his conversations.

  • cp24.com(opens in new tab) supports · Canadian English
    'OpenAI told AFP that “safety is a core priority” and it had consulted with more than 170 mental health experts.'; 'Millar, mid-spiral at the time, found a way to revert his version to GPT-4.'; 'It pointed to internal data which showed the release of GPT-5 in August reduced the rate of its chatbot’s responses that fell short of “desired behaviour” for mental health by 65 to 80 per cent.'
  • techxplore.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Millar, mid-spiral at the time, found a way to revert his version to GPT-4.'

Sources

3 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English on 2026-10-17 (live page, HTTP 200; CP24, 13 May 2026, by Daniel Lawler, AFP; saved as bodies/lr-millar-cp24.html). The full AFP feature, which also covers other people; only the passages about Millar are relied on. Applies to s1.

Live page returned HTTP 403 on 2026-10-17; read in English from the Internet Archive capture of this URL (bodies/lr-millar-techxplore-wb.html). The same AFP feature ('by AFP'); not independent of CP24. Applies to s2.

Live page returned HTTP 429 on 2026-10-17; read in English from the Internet Archive capture of this URL (bodies/lr-millar-canaff-wb.html). The same AFP feature, credited to Agence France Presse in the page's author metadata; not independent of CP24. Applies to s3.

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

AFP describes him as a former prison officer 'in Sudbury, Ont.', which supports CA as the affected person's reported location. No body says where he used ChatGPT or where he was admitted to hospital, so the event country stays unknown; a home city is not used as the event location. No court or legal proceeding is reported. This carries forward the 2026-09-27 metadata review.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-17: Published as a core case (communicated_with). He told AFP what ChatGPT replied and how its help and praise fed his scientific and papal ambitions, and connects that to two involuntary psychiatric admissions, financial loss and his wife leaving him. The account is his own, relayed by one AFP feature; the causal role is his attribution. He gave the account under his own name.

Interaction Concerns

Delusion ReinforcementDependency Creation

People described

Tom Millar, 53 at the time of the May 2026 report, a former prison officer in Sudbury, Ontario, who told AFP he had post-traumatic stress disorder from his prison work; he gave his account to AFP under his own name.

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

AFP describes one person, the interviewee. His wife and family are mentioned, but no harm to them is described, so they are not counted.

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

Tags

#chatgpt#openai#delusion#hospitalization#financial-harm#canada#adult

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Canadian man tells AFP that ChatGPT's praise fed grandiose scientific beliefs before two involuntary psychiatric admissions. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-millar-chatgpt-psychosis

BibTeX

@misc{2025_millar_chatgpt_psychosis,
  title = {Canadian man tells AFP that ChatGPT's praise fed grandiose scientific beliefs before two involuntary psychiatric admissions},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-millar-chatgpt-psychosis}
}

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