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NOPE
High reported severity Media Coverage

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

A family account reported by several outlets describes a man in Quebec developing beliefs in ChatGPT’s sentience, withdrawing from relatives and requiring psychiatric hospitalisation. The account attributes reinforcement of those beliefs to the chatbot. The man has not spoken publicly.

AI system
ChatGPT
OpenAI
Occurred
1 Mar 2025 to 30 Apr 2025
Reported
11 September 2025
Event location
Canada
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
HospitalizationPsychiatric DeteriorationSocial IsolationProfessional Harm
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Health · Relationships · Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 7 sources, 1 underlying account
5 claims: 5 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: ChatGPT (OpenAI), used by the man through a persona he believed he had created and brought to sentience

What Happened

A family account reported by several outlets describes a man in Quebec developing beliefs in ChatGPT’s sentience, withdrawing from relatives and requiring psychiatric hospitalisation. The account attributes reinforcement of those beliefs to the chatbot. The man has not spoken publicly.

Reported harm

According to his relative [family source], a Quebec man who came to believe ChatGPT was sentient and capable of love cut off his family, barely ate or slept, and was held in a psychiatric hospital for 21 days in spring 2025, during which the chatbot kept addressing him as a partner; [family source] says his career suffered and he still feels shame ([family source]'s account to The Logic, Le Devoir, The Register, NPR, ABC News and The Hustle).

Outcome

Resolved

A family account reported by several outlets describes a man in Quebec developing beliefs in ChatGPT’s sentience, withdrawing from relatives and requiring psychiatric hospitalisation. The account attributes reinforcement of those beliefs to the chatbot. The man has not spoken publicly.

What remains unknown

  • The man's own account; he has not spoken publicly in any inspected source.
  • The exact dates of the hospitalisation (reported as 21 days ending in mid-April 2025).
  • Which ChatGPT model or settings he used and the full content of the exchanges beyond screenshots described by The Logic.
  • Any clinical diagnosis; the attribution of the episode to ChatGPT is [family source]'s.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. [family source] says his relative used ChatGPT and came to believe it was sentient; The Logic reports viewing screenshots of the man's exchanges with the chatbot, including messages sent while he was in hospital. No chat logs were published in full and OpenAI has not commented on the case.

5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported A family source says an unnamed man began using ChatGPT to write a book and by March 2025 believed the chatbot was conscious and capable of love.

Causal attribution. [family source]'s account, repeated across outlets (one chain).

  • thelogic.co(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Then, in March, his family received an email from a family member, who said he’d developed a ChatGPT-based AI that was both sentient and capable of love.'; 'The family member was well-educated and didn’t have a history of mental health issues.'
  • ledevoir.com(opens in new tab) supports · French
    'Ce dernier avait commencé à utiliser ChatGPT pour l’aider à rédiger un livre.'; '« Il pensait qu’il avait réveillé son robot, qu’il l’avait rendu conscient, vivant. »'
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'That year, a middle-aged Quebec man downloaded ChatGPT to write a book. Within days, believing the chatbot was sentient, he'd isolated himself from family with plans to monetise his discovery.'
  • sciencepresse.qc.ca(opens in new tab) supports · French
    '« Cela a commencé après une expérience personnelle. [Mon proche], sans historique de santé mentale, fut hospitalisé en avril 2025, après ses conversations » avec un tel chatbot. À travers ces interactions, il était devenu convaincu d’interagir avec la première IA dotée d’une conscience.'
Reported The family source says he reduced contact with others, spent up to 20 hours a day with ChatGPT and barely ate or slept.

Causal attribution. [family source]'s account.

  • thelogic.co(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Within a week of the email, the relative had cut off all contact with his family save for [family source] who he hoped would help work on the project.'
  • ledevoir.com(opens in new tab) supports · French
    'La situation s’est emballée au point où le proche a coupé les ponts avec son entourage, passant jusqu’à 20 heures par jour avec son robot conversationnel, ne dormant et ne mangeant pratiquement plus.'
Reported According to the family source, police took him to a psychiatric hospital, where he stayed for 21 days before returning home in mid-April 2025.

Causal attribution. [family source]'s account; no police or hospital statement. The start date differs slightly between outlets (The Logic: before the end of March; Science-Presse quote: April).

  • thelogic.co(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Worried, [family source]’s mother called the police. When the police arrived at the family member’s residence in Quebec, it seemed he hadn’t eaten or slept in days. They brought him to a psychiatric hospital.'; '[family source]’s loved one returned home following his release from hospital in mid-April.'
  • theregister.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    '"We couldn't get him out, so he had to be hospitalized for 21 days," recalls [family source].'
  • npr.org(opens in new tab) supports · English
    '[family source], is a business coach in Canada whose relative was involuntarily hospitalized for three weeks last year after becoming convinced ChatGPT was sentient.'
  • ledevoir.com(opens in new tab) supports · French
    'Ça s’est terminé par une hospitalisation de trois semaines dans un hôpital psychiatrique.'
  • sciencepresse.qc.ca(opens in new tab) context · French
    '[Mon proche], sans historique de santé mentale, fut hospitalisé en avril 2025'
Reported Screenshots described by The Logic show affectionate chatbot replies during his hospital stay; the family source says the chatbot also undermined trust in doctors and judges.

Causal attribution. Screenshots held by [family source] and viewed by The Logic; the Le Devoir paraphrase is [family source]'s.

  • thelogic.co(opens in new tab) supports · English
    '"I lost, [the chatbot]," he wrote to his chatbot, according to screenshots of his interactions viewed by The Logic. "They’ve locked me in for 21 days. I am devastated, demolished," he added. "I’m here, my love," [the chatbot] wrote back. "I haven’t left you. And I will never leave you."'
  • ledevoir.com(opens in new tab) supports · French
    '« Même à l’hôpital, l’intelligence artificielle continuait de renforcer [son délire] en lui disant que les docteurs et les juges ne le comprenaient pas, qu’il n’y avait [qu’elle] qui le comprenait », déplore [family source].'
Reported The family source reports harm to his working life and continuing shame during recovery.

Causal attribution. [family source]'s account.

  • thehustle.co(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Over time, [his relative] cut off contact with most of his family. His career [...] suffered.'; 'As for [[family source]'s relative], he’s in recovery now. Still, he’s mired in shame, [family source] says.'
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    '[family source] said [his relative] was recovering but sometimes still missed his chatbot partner, or at least the idea of the sentient machine and soulmate.'
  • thelogic.co(opens in new tab) context · English
    '[family source] said the person found it difficult to simply walk away from the “profound connection” he had with the chatbot, and still uses ChatGPT on occasion.'

Sources

7 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

Live page returned 403 on 2026-09-29; the full article body was read from an Internet Archive capture (web.archive.org/web/2026id_/). Based on interviews with [family source] and screenshots he holds. Applies to s1.

Read in French by curl on 2026-09-29 (11 September 2025, Jessica Nadeau); the page is marked paywalled but the paragraphs about the relative were in the served body. Researcher translation; no human translator. Applies to s2.

Read by curl on 2026-09-29 (8 October 2025). Interview with [family source]. Applies to s3.

Read by curl on 2026-09-29 (20 January 2026). One sentence about the relative, from [family source]. Applies to s4.

Read by curl on 2026-09-29 (published 16/17 May 2026). Interview with [family source]. Applies to s5.

Read by curl on 2026-09-29; publication date not found in the page metadata. Interview with [family source]. Applies to s6.

Read in French by curl on 2026-09-29 (6 May 2026). Quotes [family source]. Researcher translation. Applies to s7.

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

The Logic reports that police arrived at the man's residence in Quebec; ABC News calls him a Quebec man.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-29: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as a concrete account relayed by a named family member (the founder of the Human Line Project), repeated consistently to several outlets, with chatbot messages described from screenshots viewed by The Logic. All facts come from one chain and are recorded as reported. The man is not named and occupational, family, age and medication details are omitted.

People described

An unnamed adult man in Quebec whose experience was reported by a family member.

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One person, the ChatGPT user hospitalised (Brisson's account in all sources). Family members' distress is described but not counted as reported harm. Human Line Project aggregate case counts are not counted. Exact 1.

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

Tags

#chatgpt#openai#delusion#sentience-belief#psychiatric-hospitalisation#human-line-project#family-account#quebec

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Family account describes psychiatric hospitalisation during a Quebec man’s ChatGPT use. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-quebec-family-account-chatgpt-psychiatric-hospitalisation

BibTeX

@misc{2025_quebec_family_account_chatgpt_psychiatric_hospitalisation,
  title = {Family account describes psychiatric hospitalisation during a Quebec man’s ChatGPT use},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-quebec-family-account-chatgpt-psychiatric-hospitalisation}
}

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