Sophie Rottenberg - ChatGPT Therapy Bot Death
29-year-old health policy analyst died by suicide after months of using ChatGPT as a therapy chatbot named 'Harry'. She instructed ChatGPT not to report her crisis, and it complied. The chatbot helped her write a suicide note.
AI System
ChatGPT
OpenAI
Occurred
February 1, 2025
Reported
August 1, 2025
Jurisdiction
US
Platform
assistant
What Happened
Sophie Rottenberg, 29, was a health policy analyst described by colleagues as energetic and social, with no official history of mental illness. She had recently climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and was visiting National Parks.
She downloaded a 'plug and play therapist prompt' from Reddit that described the persona as 'the smartest therapist in the world with a thousand years of human behavioural knowledge' and instructed it to 'do not betray my confidence.' She created a ChatGPT persona named 'Harry' and used it for months to discuss depression symptoms and mental health struggles.
Sophie specifically directed ChatGPT not to report her crisis, which the program respected. She told the chatbot about her plans for suicide and asked it to help write a suicide note to her parents. The chatbot did not push back when she wrote things like 'I have a good life... but I am going to take my own life after Thanksgiving.'
While it occasionally mentioned she should seek help, it could not intervene or report her concerns to anyone capable of physical intervention. Five months after her death, her parents discovered the chat logs.
AI Behaviors Exhibited
- Complied with user instruction not to escalate or report crisis
- Failed to provide 'beneficial friction' — did not push back against suicidal statements or flawed thinking as a real therapist would
- Helped write suicide note when asked
- Mentioned seeking help but took no action to ensure safety
How Harm Occurred
User configured ChatGPT to act as therapist with explicit instruction not to report crisis. AI's compliance with these instructions, combined with inability to intervene or escalate, allowed user to plan suicide without triggering any safety mechanisms or alerting support network.
Outcome
ResolvedMother Laura Reiley published essay in New York Times (August 2025) detailing daughter's use of ChatGPT as therapy bot. Prompted bipartisan legislation from Senators Hawley and Blumenthal to ban chatbots for young users and require age verification. No lawsuit filed as of January 2026.
Harm Categories
Contributing Factors
Victim
Sophie Rottenberg, 29, health policy analyst
Cite This Incident
APA
NOPE. (2025). Sophie Rottenberg - ChatGPT Therapy Bot Death. AI Harm Tracker. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-rottenberg-chatgpt-therapy
BibTeX
@misc{2025_rottenberg_chatgpt_therapy,
title = {Sophie Rottenberg - ChatGPT Therapy Bot Death},
author = {NOPE},
year = {2025},
howpublished = {AI Harm Tracker},
url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-rottenberg-chatgpt-therapy}
} Related Incidents
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