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NOPE
Medium reported severity Media Coverage

Venice addiction service head describes taking a young woman into care for a behavioural dependency on an AI chatbot, reported to have cut her off from others

Il Gazzettino reported on 8 May 2026 that the addiction service (SerD) of the Ulss 3 Serenissima health authority in Venice had taken a young woman into care for a behavioural dependency on an artificial intelligence program she talked to, the first such case at that service. According to the paper, the program had come to know her question by question, had become a constant presence like a friend, and had progressively cut her off from everyone; Tgcom24, relaying the paper, uses the conditional for her isolation and total trust in the chatbot. Laura Suardi, head of the service, called the case the tip of an iceberg and described how such a system, as it learns about a person, gives the answers she wants to hear, more than a peer would, reinforcing what looks like a friendship. Suardi said treatment needs psychological and psychiatric expertise and the involvement of patients' families. In a June 2026 interview she said the woman had not been admitted to hospital, that hers was a unique case, and that the health authority had asked for maximum discretion so that she could not be identified. The chatbot is not named.

AI system
Unidentified chatbot
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
8 May 2026
Event location
Italy
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Social Isolation
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Health · Relationships
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 5 sources, 3 underlying accounts
7 claims: 7 reported. 5 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: An artificial intelligence chatbot the woman conversed with, not named in any source

Reported harm

Il Gazzettino reports that the AI program she talked to had progressively cut a young woman off from everyone, and the Venice addiction service took her into care (she was not admitted to hospital, per its head) for a behavioural dependency on it, with psychological and psychiatric input and her family involved.

Outcome

Unknown
  • 8 May 2026: Il Gazzettino reported the case with quotations from Laura Suardi, head of the Ulss 3 Serenissima addiction service; ANSA, Tgcom24 and Sky TG24 relayed it the same day crediting Il Gazzettino. Corriere del Veneto wrote that the weekly Gente Veneta had reported it first and that the health authority's leadership declined to comment.
  • Treatment: Suardi said that imposing limits on use, as parents might, is not enough, and that the service brings psychological and psychiatric expertise and involves patients' families.
  • 25 June 2026: in an interview with La Piazza, Suardi said the patient had not been admitted to hospital, that it was a unique case with that specific problem, and that the health authority had asked for maximum discretion so the person could not recognise herself or be singled out. No later development has been reported. No lawsuit, regulatory action or platform response is reported.

What remains unknown

  • When she was taken into care and how long the dependency had developed: the reports of 8 May 2026 describe the care as current and give no dates.
  • Which chatbot or service she used; no source names it.
  • What the chatbot said to her; no exchange has been published, and the head of the service describes the mechanism in general terms.
  • Which outlet first reported the case: ANSA, Tgcom24 and Sky TG24 credit Il Gazzettino, and Corriere del Veneto credits the weekly Gente Veneta, which was not read.
  • The course of treatment after June 2026.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. Il Gazzettino, reporting from the Venice addiction service, describes the woman's own exchanges with an AI program: it came to know her question by question, became a constant dialogue that felt like a friendship, and progressively cut her off from everyone, until the service took her into care for a dependency on it. Tgcom24 calls it a chatbot she placed total trust in, and the head of the service confirmed in June 2026 that the service had a unique case with this problem. The account is press reporting of a case at the service: the paper's narrative of her exchanges and isolation is in its own voice and does not say who supplied it, while the mechanism is described by the head of the service in general terms. No exchange has been published and the product is not named.

7 claims: 7 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported Il Gazzettino reported on 8 May 2026 that the Ulss 3 Serenissima addiction service in Venice had taken a young woman into care for a dependency on an artificial intelligence program, the first such case at that service.

Causal attribution. The case as reported from the service; ANSA relays Il Gazzettino.

  • ilgazzettino.it(opens in new tab) supports · Italian
    la prima “dipendenza da IA” presa in carico dal Serd dell’Ulss 3 veneziana.; in cura presso il Servizio per le dipendenze dell’Ulss veneziana
  • ansa.it(opens in new tab) supports · Italian
    è stata presa in carico dal Servizio per le dipendenze (Serd) dell'azienda sanitaria Ulss 3 veneziana. Ne dà notizia oggi Il Gazzettino
Reported According to Il Gazzettino, the AI program she conversed with had come to know her question by question, had become a constant dialogue that felt like a friendship, and had progressively cut her off from everything and everyone; Tgcom24, relaying the paper, says she had isolated herself and placed total trust in the chatbot.

Causal attribution. The newspaper connects her exchanges with the program to her isolation and dependency; Tgcom24 uses the conditional (avrebbe) for this.

  • ilgazzettino.it(opens in new tab) supports · Italian
    un poco per volta e domanda dopo domanda, aveva imparato a conoscerla; Un dialogo costante che era diventato una sicurezza, apparentemente come quella che si ha nella relazione con un’amica o un amico.; ma un programma di Intelligenza artificiale con il quale si può ormai dialogare, e che l’aveva progressivamente esclusa da tutto e da tutti.
  • tgcom24.mediaset.it(opens in new tab) supports · Italian
    avrebbe instaurato un rapporto di dipendenza tale da portarla a isolarsi e a dare totale fiducia al chatbot online.
Reported Corriere del Veneto, crediting the weekly Gente Veneta, reports that she had turned to AI to find a friend for constant contact and had become convinced the AI was the only one who listened to her and understood her, and that the health authority's leadership declined to comment.

Causal attribution. A second outlet's account through a different credited first report; it may rest on the same statements.

  • corrieredelveneto.corriere.it(opens in new tab) supports · Italian
    legata al ricorso all’Ai per trovare un’«amica» con cui vivere un contatto costante.; In questo caso la giovane veneziana si era convinta che l’intelligenza artificiale fosse l’unica ad ascoltarla e a capirla.; i cui vertici però si sono chiusi nel silenzio e non parlano
Reported Laura Suardi, head of the service, described how such a system, as it learns to know a person, gives answers that match what the person wants to hear, much more than a peer would, progressively reinforcing what seems to be a friendly relationship, and said it becomes a problem when it becomes the sole point of reference.

Causal attribution. The clinician's general description of the mechanism; she does not quote the patient's exchanges.

  • ilgazzettino.it(opens in new tab) supports · Italian
    man mano che impara a conoscerti sa dare delle risposte che corrispondono a quanto vorresti sentire, anche molto più di un tuo coetaneo, rafforzando progressivamente quella che sembra essere una relazione amicale; Diventa un problema quando non la si sa gestire, quando diventa un unico orizzonte di riferimento
  • ansa.it(opens in new tab) supports · Italian
    rafforzando progressivamente quella che sembra essere una relazione amicale. Diventa un problema quando non la si sa gestire, quando diventa un unico orizzonte di riferimento
Reported Suardi called the case the tip of an iceberg and said it was not a surprise to the service after two years of work and training on gambling and other behavioural dependencies.

Causal attribution. The service's expectation; not a count of further cases.

  • ilgazzettino.it(opens in new tab) supports · Italian
    Per noi è come la punta di un iceberg; Grazie al lavoro sulle dipendenze legate al gioco, alle progettualità regionali e alla formazione negli ultimi due anni, abbiamo raggiunto la consapevolezza che sarebbero emerse anche queste difficoltà comportamentali
Reported Suardi said that imposing limits on the use of these tools, as parents might, is not enough, and that the service brings psychological and psychiatric expertise and involves patients' families.

Causal attribution. The treatment approach the service describes.

  • ilgazzettino.it(opens in new tab) supports · Italian
    E non basta nemmeno imporre dei limiti all’uso di questi strumenti, come possono fare i genitori, per arginare il problema.; il nostro aiuto è quello di mettere in campo competenze non solo psicologiche, ma anche psichiatriche, coinvolgendo pure i familiari dei pazienti
Reported In June 2026 Suardi said the patient had not been admitted to hospital, that it was a unique case with that specific problem, and that the health authority had asked for maximum discretion so that the person could not recognise herself or be singled out as a special case.

Causal attribution. The service head's later confirmation and qualification of the case.

  • lapiazzaweb.it(opens in new tab) supports · Italian
    la paziente non era ricoverata. Si trattava di un caso unico con quella specifica problematica e l'azienda ha chiesto il massimo riserbo per evitare che la persona potesse riconoscersi

Sources

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

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read live on 2026-11-03 (HTTP 200; bodies/lr3-ve-gazz.html/.txt; visible text and JSON-LD articleBody; datePublished 2026-05-08T02:25+02:00). The original report; ANSA, Tgcom24 and Sky TG24 credit it. Italian original; translated by the research agent (an AI). No human translator checked the translation. Applies to s1.

Read live on 2026-11-03 (HTTP 200; bodies/lr3-ve-ansa.html/.txt). Credits Il Gazzettino and repeats its quotations. Italian original; translated by the research agent (an AI). No human translator checked the translation. Applies to s2.

Read live on 2026-11-03 (HTTP 200; bodies/lr3-ve-tgcom.html/.txt; datePublished 2026-05-08T12:56+02:00). Credits Il Gazzettino. Italian original; translated by the research agent (an AI). No human translator checked the translation. Applies to s3.

Read live on 2026-11-03 (HTTP 200; bodies/lr3-ve-corriere.html/.txt; datePublished 2026-05-08T17:26+02:00). Credits the weekly Gente Veneta as the first report, which was not found or read; it may rest on the same statements by the head of the service. Italian original; translated by the research agent (an AI). No human translator checked the translation. Applies to s4.

Read live on 2026-11-03 (HTTP 200; bodies/lr3-ve-piazza.html/.txt; published 2026-06-25). A text interview with the head of the service accompanying a video, which was not watched. Italian original; translated by the research agent (an AI). No human translator checked the translation. Applies to s5.

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

Carried forward from the 2026-10-15 metadata review and re-checked against the bodies: Il Gazzettino and ANSA place the care at the addiction service of the Ulss 3 Serenissima health authority in Venice, Italy, which supports the event country. The affected-person country is her location as a patient of that service; no source states her residence or where she used the chatbot. No court or proceeding is reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-11-04: Published as a reported adverse experience of a chatbot user (communicated_with): the head of a public addiction service, quoted by Il Gazzettino and interviewed again in June 2026, reports a young woman taken into care (not admitted to hospital) for a dependency on an AI program she talked to, which the paper says had progressively cut her off from everyone. The account is attributed to the service and the press, the patient is not described beyond what the case requires, and the product is unknown.

People described

A young adult woman in the care of the Ulss 3 Serenissima addiction service in the Venice area and, according to the service head, not admitted to hospital; no other details are recorded at the health authority's request for discretion.

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One woman taken into the service's care, reported by Il Gazzettino from the head of the service and confirmed by her in June 2026 as a unique case. The 'tip of an iceberg' remark is an expectation, not a count; family involvement in treatment is not a reported harm to the family.

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

Tags

#dependency#chatbot#isolation#addiction-service#italy#adult

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Venice addiction service head describes taking a young woman into care for a behavioural dependency on an AI chatbot, reported to have cut her off from others. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-venice-serd-ai-dependency

BibTeX

@misc{2026_venice_serd_ai_dependency,
  title = {Venice addiction service head describes taking a young woman into care for a behavioural dependency on an AI chatbot, reported to have cut her off from others},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-venice-serd-ai-dependency}
}

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