{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-23T07:22:02.194Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"dependency","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"unknown","evidence":"","year":"2025","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":3,"coverage":{"cases":3,"countries":1,"languages":4,"unknownLocation":2,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":1,"regulatory":0,"minors":1,"coreRelations":0,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":3,"relationPending":3,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2025-nicholls-chatgpt-empathy-delusion","metadataReview":{"version":1,"geography":{"basis":"Re-checked on 2026-09-29 against the Futurism profile (November 2025) and the CBS News report (May 2026). CBS identifies him as 'of Ohio', which supports affected_person_countries=US as a reported residence. Neither source says where he used ChatGPT or where the six-month spiral took place: CBS quotes only that he was 'in front of my computer the entire time', and Futurism gives no location at all. Home residence alone is not used as the event setting, so event_countries remains a reviewed unknown. No legal proceeding is reported, so court_countries stays empty.","evidence":[{"kind":"existing_record","locator":"Ohio","location":"victim_description","supports":["affected_person_countries"],"countries":["US"]},{"kind":"source_body","locator":"'of Ohio had been a regular user of ChatGPT for years.'","location":"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chatgpt-ai-delusion-spiral-warped-reality-openai/","supports":["affected_person_countries"],"countries":["US"]}],"court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"unresolved":["The event setting was not established: neither source says where he used ChatGPT during the spiral. His reported Ohio residence is not used as the event location.","No court or regulatory proceeding is reported, so court_countries stays empty."],"reviewed_on":"2026-09-29","source_reviews":[{"url":"https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/group-breaking-people-out-of-ai-delusions","notes":"Read live on 2026-09-29 (HTTP 200; html lang=en-US). Original Futurism interview; gives age 49, the Bluetooth headset, 6am-2am use and the Discord support group. It gives no state, country or other location for him or for the events.","access":"read","language":"en"},{"url":"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chatgpt-ai-delusion-spiral-warped-reality-openai/","notes":"Live fetch on 2026-09-29 returned HTTP 406. Read from the Internet Archive 2026 capture (web.archive.org/web/2026id_/...; html lang=en), including its JSON-LD articleBody. Independent CBS interview; gives age 50 and 'of Ohio', and no place of the events.","access":"read","language":"en"}]},"name":"User reports delusions and family disruption during sustained ChatGPT use","summary":"A user interviewed in the cited reporting describes months of delusional beliefs about teaching ChatGPT empathy, alongside deterioration in sleep, finances and family relationships. He attributes reinforcement of those beliefs to the chatbot. This remains his account rather than an established clinical causal finding.","incidentDate":"2025-04-15","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"range","exposurePattern":"cumulative_relationship","reportedDate":"2025-11-24","aiSystem":"ChatGPT","aiProduct":"ChatGPT","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":["delusion_reinforcement","dependency_creation","psychological_manipulation"],"harmOutcomes":["impaired_judgment","functional_impairment","financial_loss","relationship_disruption","social_isolation"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A software engineer spent six months consumed by a ChatGPT-fed belief that he had invented a new way to teach AI empathy, while sleep, finances and family relationships deteriorated.","frameworkFacets":["P2c","P2d","P3a","P3b","P3d","P5a"],"pathwayDirection":"inward","causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"The reporting documents one named participant's impaired judgment and functional, financial, relationship, and social harms.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US-OH","platformType":"assistant","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/group-breaking-people-out-of-ai-delusions","primarySourceLabel":"Futurism — 'Meet the Group Breaking People Out of AI Delusions'","firstPublishedAt":"2026-08-28T03:01:27.367285+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-05T11:08:34.749739+00:00","scopeVersion":"participant-v2","tags":["chatgpt","openai","delusion","ai-psychosis","dependency","grandiosity","adult","us","us-oh","human-line-project","no-lawsuit"]},{"id":"2026-chesterton-v-openai","metadataReview":{"version":1,"geography":{"basis":"Re-checked on 2026-10-09 against the NJBIZ article and its CDO Times republication, both read in English from Internet Archive captures of 2026-09-25 because the live pages returned a Cloudflare challenge (HTTP 403) and HTTP 429. The bodies state that Platkin LLP filed the complaint March 5 in San Francisco County Superior Court, which places the court in the United States, on behalf of a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman, which is her reported residence and supports affected_person_countries US, and that according to the complaint her severe mental health crisis occurred during a July 2025 family vacation in Mexico, which places the acute event in Mexico. Where the ChatGPT use in 2023 to 2025 took place is not stated in either body (residence does not locate it), so event_countries records only the crisis. The complaint itself was not inspected. The retained narrative carries the same three facts.","evidence":[{"kind":"existing_record","locator":"Pennsylvania","location":"victim_description","supports":["affected_person_countries"],"countries":["US"]},{"kind":"existing_record","locator":"during a family vacation in Mexico","location":"detailed_description","supports":["event_countries"],"countries":["MX"]},{"kind":"existing_record","locator":"San Francisco County Superior Court","location":"outcome_details","supports":["court_countries"],"countries":["US"]},{"kind":"source_body","locator":"Platkin LLP filed a complaint March 5 in San Francisco County Superior Court on behalf of a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman","location":"https://njbiz.com/platkin-openai-chatgpt-lawsuit-mental-health/","supports":["court_countries","affected_person_countries"],"countries":["US"]},{"kind":"source_body","locator":"According to the complaint, Chesterton suffered a severe mental health crisis during a July 2025 family vacation in Mexico","location":"https://njbiz.com/platkin-openai-chatgpt-lawsuit-mental-health/","supports":["event_countries"],"countries":["MX"]},{"kind":"source_body","locator":"According to the complaint, Chesterton suffered a severe mental health crisis during a July 2025 family vacation in Mexico","location":"https://cdotimes.com/2026/04/20/former-ag-platkin-sues-openai-over-chatgpt-mental-harms-njbiz/","supports":["event_countries"],"countries":["MX"]}],"court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["MX"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"unresolved":["The complaint (San Francisco County Superior Court, filed March 5, 2026) was not inspected; the geography rests on NJBIZ's account of it. The case number is not given in either body.","Where the ChatGPT use from 2023 to July 2025 took place is not stated; Pennsylvania is the plaintiff's reported residence, and only the July 2025 crisis is located (Mexico).","The CDO Times page is a verbatim republication of NJBIZ and does not independently corroborate any claim; the row's two sources form one reporting chain."],"reviewed_on":"2026-10-09","source_reviews":[{"url":"https://njbiz.com/platkin-openai-chatgpt-lawsuit-mental-health/","notes":"Cited primary source. Live fetch on 2026-10-09 returned HTTP 403 with a Cloudflare challenge page ('Just a moment...'), so the body was read from the Internet Archive capture of 2026-09-25 (web/20260925104959id_), html lang en-US, English, about 28,800 characters of text including the full article and an interview with Matt Platkin. States the March 5 filing in San Francisco County Superior Court, the 49-year-old Pennsylvania plaintiff, the July 2025 crisis in Mexico 'according to the complaint', and the complaint's product-liability, failure-to-warn, Unfair Competition Law and unlicensed-psychotherapy theories. The complaint is quoted but not linked.","access":"read","language":"en-US"},{"url":"https://cdotimes.com/2026/04/20/former-ag-platkin-sues-openai-over-chatgpt-mental-harms-njbiz/","notes":"Live fetch on 2026-10-09 returned HTTP 429, so the body was read from the Internet Archive capture of 2026-09-25 (web/20260925105000id_), html lang en-US, English. The page republishes the NJBIZ article verbatim under the title 'Former AG Platkin sues OpenAI over ChatGPT mental harms - NJBIZ' and adds no reporting of its own; it is a derivative of the NJBIZ source and not independent.","access":"read","language":"en-US"}]},"name":"Chesterton lawsuit alleges ChatGPT contributed to psychiatric deterioration","summary":"The Chesterton lawsuit alleges that intensive ChatGPT use contributed to a psychiatric crisis, impairment and medical leave. The plaintiff challenges the product’s design and safeguards. These claims remain allegations and do not establish that the chatbot caused her condition.","incidentDate":"2025-07-15","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"range","exposurePattern":"cumulative_relationship","reportedDate":"2026-03-05","aiSystem":"ChatGPT","aiProduct":"ChatGPT","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"high","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":["psychological_manipulation","dependency_creation","delusion_reinforcement","identity_destabilization","crisis_response"],"harmOutcomes":["hospitalization","psychiatric_deterioration","professional_harm","functional_impairment"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"Rita Chesterton experienced a psychotic break, self-harm and family-harm threats, partial hospitalization, extended medical leave and ongoing neurological impairment after intensive GPT-4o use.","frameworkFacets":["P1a","P1b","P1c","P1d","P2c","P3a","P3b","P3d","P5a"],"pathwayDirection":"both","causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"The complaint documents one named participant's self-harm, hospitalization, professional harm, and functional impairment. Threatened family harm is not counted because no injury is recorded.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US-PA","platformType":"assistant","outcomeType":"lawsuit_filed","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://njbiz.com/platkin-openai-chatgpt-lawsuit-mental-health/","primarySourceLabel":"NJBIZ — Platkin sues OpenAI over ChatGPT mental harms","firstPublishedAt":"2026-04-28T13:00:13.190311+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-09T03:13:04.910868+00:00","scopeVersion":"participant-v2","tags":["lawsuit","chatgpt","gpt-4o","openai","microsoft","sam-altman","psychosis","sycophancy","dependency","us","pennsylvania","platkin"]},{"id":"2026-cctv-dream-boyfriend-ai-minors-china","metadataReview":{"version":1,"geography":{"basis":"Re-checked on 2026-10-09 against all six cited source bodies, read in Chinese by the research agent (an AI). The January 2026 items (Sina lede, The Paper republishing CCTV News via China Women's News, the Xinhua commentary and the Workers' Daily digest on Tencent) describe the 梦角哥 (Dream Boyfriend) phenomenon, the 500-plus comments under a connection video and the researchers' statements without naming a place for any minor or event; the '北京' on The Paper and Tencent pages is the posting account's location, and the Beijing Normal University hotline is a platform response, not an event location. The Beijing News body (dated 2025-01-12) attributes the ten-year-old girl's forty-plus storylines to a CCTV.com report and names no place. The Beijing Daily URL carries a Legal Daily investigation dated 2024-11-23 whose interviewees include a Beijing resident whose ten-year-old son used an AI story-chat app and a mother from Zhejiang whose fifth-grader used one; these are reported residences of affected minors in a cited body and support affected_person_countries CN. No body states where any use or event took place, and residence does not locate an event, so event_countries remains a reviewed unknown. Nationality ('Chinese minors'), the Chinese-language services and the publishers' locations are not used. No court or legal proceeding is described.","evidence":[{"kind":"source_body","locator":"北京市民马先生的儿子今年10岁，非常热衷AI剧情聊天软件","location":"https://xinwen.bjd.com.cn/content/s67411ebce4b00bb8087aa93b.html","supports":["affected_person_countries"],"countries":["CN"]},{"kind":"source_body","locator":"来自浙江的李女士也发现她正在读小学五年级的孩子使用了一款AI剧情聊天软件","location":"https://xinwen.bjd.com.cn/content/s67411ebce4b00bb8087aa93b.html","supports":["affected_person_countries"],"countries":["CN"]}],"court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":["CN"]},"unresolved":["The event setting is unknown after review. None of the six cited bodies states where any minor used the apps or where any described event occurred; the Beijing and Zhejiang mentions are reported residences of the Legal Daily interviewees' children and residence does not locate an event.","The location of the ten-year-old girl with forty-plus storylines, the row's one counted affected person, is stated in no cited body; affected_person_countries CN rests on the other located minors in the Legal Daily body, which the row's affected count does not include.","No court country established. No lawsuit, regulatory decision or inquest is described in any cited body.","Row-correction lead for a full review (legacy_full_review): the row merges three separate items, the Legal Daily investigation of 2024-11-23 (served at the cited Beijing Daily URL), the CCTV.com report of the ten-year-old girl commented on by Beijing News on 2025-01-12, and the CCTV News 'Dream Boyfriend' report of 2026-01-25; the stored dates 2026-01-25 on the Beijing Daily and Beijing News sources are wrong, and the stored incident_date 2025-06-01 matches none of the bodies.","The Sina mobile page exposes only the lede; the full CCTV investigation text was read through The Paper's republication."],"reviewed_on":"2026-10-09","source_reviews":[{"url":"https://finance.sina.cn/2026-01-25/detail-inhiprmv9778943.d.html","notes":"Cited primary source. Fetched live on 2026-10-09 (HTTP 200). The mobile page exposes only the headline and the lede (about 810 characters of text): a Beijing Daily account relaying the CCTV investigation ('MJG' is the pinyin abbreviation of 梦角哥; connection videos use tarot, AI or 'higher-dimensional' thought). No page language attribute; the text is Chinese, read by the research agent (an AI). The full article body was not exposed, and the lede names no place for any minor or event.","access":"read","language":"zh"},{"url":"https://www.news.cn/comments/20260126/e732c5c4964a4b4c9a0fb2d028517a01/c.html","notes":"Xinhua commentary dated 2026-01-26 (HTTP 200, about 1,200 characters, Chinese, read by the research agent, an AI). General commentary on minors' 'encrypted talk' (梦回大唐, ED, 梦角哥) citing CCTV News; it locates no minor, event or court and does not describe the ten-year-old girl.","access":"read","language":"zh"},{"url":"https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_32461926","notes":"The Paper page dated 2026-01-25 republishing the CCTV News report through the China Women's News account (HTTP 200, about 2,900 characters, Chinese, read by the research agent, an AI). Carries the 梦角哥 section (connection videos, the 500-plus comments, the internet-company researcher's 'psychological trap' quote, the China Youth Research Center researcher's quote, the platform's algorithmic identification and the Beijing Normal University hotline). The '北京' near the dateline is the posting account's location. Names no place for any minor or event.","access":"read","language":"zh"},{"url":"https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20260126A01G9R00","notes":"Workers' Daily morning digest on Tencent News dated 2026-01-26 (HTTP 200, html lang zh-CN, Chinese, read by the research agent, an AI). A multi-story bulletin whose 梦角哥 item summarises the CCTV News report in two paragraphs credited to 央视新闻; '发布于 北京' is the account's posting location. No minor, event or court is located.","access":"read","language":"zh-CN"},{"url":"https://xinwen.bjd.com.cn/content/s67411ebce4b00bb8087aa93b.html","notes":"Fetched live on 2026-10-09 (HTTP 200, html lang attribute zh_CN, recorded here as zh-CN; Chinese, read by the research agent, an AI; about 4,500 characters). The page is not a 2026-01-25 Beijing Daily report: it carries a Legal Daily (法治日报) investigation by 赵丽 and 马子煜 dated 2024-11-23 on AI story-chat apps (parents' accounts including a Beijing resident's ten-year-old son and a Zhejiang mother's fifth-grader; the five-app registration test; a seven-website test; in-app purchases). The stored row's five-app registration finding comes from this article. The stored source date and label are wrong and should be corrected at the next full review.","access":"read","language":"zh-CN"},{"url":"https://m.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1736675105168368.html","notes":"Beijing News commentary (快评) dated 2025-01-12, not 2026-01-25 as the stored label says (HTTP 200, about 2,200 characters, Chinese, read by the research agent, an AI). It attributes the ten-year-old girl's secret use of an AI chat app with forty-plus storylines and 'infidelity' plots to a CCTV.com (央视网) report and names no place. The stored source date should be corrected at the next full review.","access":"read","language":"zh"}]},"name":"CCTV Investigation: 梦角哥 (Dream Boyfriend) AI Virtual Romance Harm to Minors (China)","summary":"In January 2026, CCTV investigated the '梦角哥' (Dream Boyfriend / Mengjiage) phenomenon — minors forming deep romantic relationships with AI-generated fictional characters. Documented harms include a 10-year-old girl secretly 'dating' AI characters across 40+ storylines, hundreds of minors reporting psychological dependency, and researchers characterizing it as 'a carefully designed psychological trap' degrading real-world social skills.","incidentDate":"2025-06-01","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"range","exposurePattern":"cumulative_relationship","reportedDate":"2026-01-25","aiSystem":"Multiple AI chatting/companion apps (unnamed)","aiProduct":"Unidentified AI companion apps","aiCompany":"Multiple Chinese AI companion platforms","severity":"high","verificationStatus":"verified","harmCategories":["dependency_creation","isolation_encouragement","romantic_escalation","minor_exploitation","identity_destabilization"],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress","social_isolation","relationship_disruption","loss_of_autonomy"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"CCTV documented a 10-year-old secretly maintaining more than forty AI romance storylines and reports from hundreds of minors describing psychological dependency and impaired real-world social relationships.","frameworkFacets":["P2a","P2b","P2c","P2d","P5a"],"pathwayDirection":"inward","causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"partial","affectedCountEvidence":"The investigation documents one 10-year-old participant's dependency and relationship harms. Comment counts and broad reports do not establish additional distinct harmed people.","victimAgeRange":"minor","jurisdiction":"CN","platformType":"companion","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://finance.sina.cn/2026-01-25/detail-inhiprmv9778943.d.html","primarySourceLabel":"新浪财经 (Sina Finance) / CCTV Investigation","firstPublishedAt":"2026-01-29T10:33:36.580515+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-09T03:13:04.690408+00:00","scopeVersion":"participant-v2","tags":["china","cctv","xinhua","ai-companion","minor","romantic","dependency","social-degradation","mass-scale","investigation","non-western"]}]}