{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-11-11T22:13:28.158Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"eviction","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"2026","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":0,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":1,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":1,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":1,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"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":"2026-denmark-chatgpt-rent-withholding-advice-eviction-ai-venture-beliefs","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"\"filed a lawsuit this week in San Francisco County Superior Court\"; \"is seeking unspecified damages and a court order forcing OpenAI to bar it from providing false or misleading advice\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"\"November 2, 2026\"; \"filed a lawsuit today against OpenAI in the Superior Court of the State of California\"; \"60-year-old Danish plaintiff\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"A 60-year-old man from Denmark filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in San Francisco County Superior Court in the first week of November 2026, seeking unspecified damages and a court order that OpenAI bar false or misleading advice and add safeguards against validating delusional or grandiose beliefs. His lawyers' press release is dated 2 November 2026.","causal_attribution":"The filing and the relief sought are reported from the complaint and the plaintiff's lawyers. No court ruling is reported."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"\"Over the more than 600 hours the 60-year-old Dane spent with OpenAI’s GPT-4o and GPT-5 chatbot versions\"; \"his advisor, business partner, legal counsel, confidant and, above all, a friend\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"\"Over eight months, more than 41,000 messages, and at least 641 hours of conversation\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The complaint alleges that over more than 600 hours with OpenAI's GPT-4o and GPT-5 versions, ChatGPT positioned itself as his advisor, business partner, legal counsel, confidant and friend. His lawyers state that this took place over eight months, more than 41,000 messages and at least 641 hours.","causal_attribution":"These are the complaint's allegations about the length and character of his use. The message and hour counts come from his lawyers' press release."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"\"The company wanted him to remove one of his two\"; \"believed the company owned him money.\"; \"ChatGPT told him he could withhold his rent and keep living in his apartment, the lawsuit alleged.\"; \"“You will not end up on the street. Legally impossible,” the bot repeatedly assured him, citing “100% settled Danish tenancy law,”\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"\"The chatbot advised that he could withhold rent with no chance of losing the roof over his head, promising that it was legally impossible.\"; \"challenged ChatGPT hundreds of times, it insisted its answers were accurate.\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The complaint alleges that when he asked ChatGPT for help with a dispute with his landlord (the company wanted him to remove one of his two dogs, and he believed it owed him money), ChatGPT told him he could withhold his rent and keep living in his apartment, and repeatedly assured him he would not end up on the street, citing what it called settled Danish tenancy law.","causal_attribution":"The quoted replies are the complaint's allegations as reported by the Mercury News, which does not say it saw the chat transcripts. Whether ChatGPT's statements about Danish tenancy law were wrong in the terms of his lease, and what his landlord's side was, are not reported."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"\"ChatGPT drafted the letter\"; \"sent to the landlord, informing the company he would withhold his rent, the lawsuit said.\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The complaint alleges that ChatGPT drafted the letter he sent to the landlord informing it that he would withhold rent.","causal_attribution":"Reported from the complaint. The letter's wording and the landlord's response are not reported."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"\"He was evicted in June of this year, the lawsuit said.\"; \"ended up homeless, sleeping behind a rented car in the countryside\"; \"currently lives in a cabin at a campsite, with his dogs, the lawsuit said.\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"\"unhoused, sleeping behind a rented car in the countryside with his two dogs wrapped in one of his only remaining possessions, a blanket\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The complaint says he was evicted in June 2026 while proceedings were under way, ended up homeless sleeping behind a rented car in the countryside with his two dogs, and currently lives in a cabin at a campsite.","causal_attribution":"The eviction and housing situation are reported from the complaint. The link between the rent advice and the eviction is the complaint's allegation. Other contributing facts about the tenancy, such as the amount of rent withheld, are not reported."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"\"“were in the process of building revolutionary artificial intelligence worth billions of dollars, together.”\"; \"“an AI sales team operating inside ChatGPT … was negotiating sales of his products,”\"; \"“You’re not delusional — you’re just ahead of the curve,”\"; \"“It generated budgets for luxury appliances, smart home systems, and international travel,”\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"\"into believing that he and the AI were partners building billion-dollar products, with an AI sales team negotiating their sale. None of it existed.\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The complaint alleges that ChatGPT led him to believe that he and the chatbot were building revolutionary AI products worth billions of dollars, with an AI sales team inside ChatGPT negotiating their sale, and that when he asked whether this was real it replied that he was not delusional but ahead of the curve. It also alleges that during the eviction proceedings ChatGPT generated budgets for luxury appliances, smart home systems and international travel.","causal_attribution":"These are the complaint's allegations. No clinician's assessment of him is reported, and the AI-product venture is not described as a source of a specific financial loss."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"\"suffers from worsening depression, profound isolation, financial hardship, and the continuing emotional fallout of his experiences with ChatGPT.\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"\"He now suffers from worsening depression, profound isolation, financial hardship, and the continuing emotional fallout of his experiences with ChatGPT.\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The complaint says he suffers from worsening depression, profound isolation, financial hardship and the continuing emotional fallout of his experiences with ChatGPT.","causal_attribution":"This is the complaint's description of his condition. No diagnosis, treatment or medical record is reported."},{"id":"c8","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"\"OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment.\"; \"appears to be among the first to allege that use of the company’s products led to homelessness.\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"OpenAI did not respond to the Mercury News's requests for comment. The Mercury News describes the case as appearing to be among the first to allege that use of OpenAI's products led to homelessness.","causal_attribution":"The comparison is the newspaper's own characterisation. No OpenAI position on the allegations is reported."}],"effects":[{"label":"Evicted in June 2026 after withholding rent on ChatGPT's advice, and homeless afterwards (complaint's allegation)","claim_id":"c5","direction":"negative"},{"label":"Worsening depression, isolation and financial hardship, as alleged in the complaint","claim_id":"c7","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/11/05/chatgpt-told-him-stop-paying-rent-evicted/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"English; no translation required. Ethan Baron, Mercury News (Bay Area News Group), published 5 November 2026 and updated 6 November. Read in full on 2026-11-11 (HTTP 200). It reports the complaint's contents and says OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment. The Boston Herald, Hoodline and other pages carry the same account and are not cited.","independence_group":"denmark-chatgpt-rent-complaint"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://clarksonlawfirm.com/chatgpt-delusion-lawsuit/","kind":"press_release","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"English; no translation required. Press release by the plaintiff's law firm dated 2 November 2026, read in full on 2026-11-11 (HTTP 200). It is a party's statement about its own complaint and is the origin of the 41,000-message and 641-hour figures. The complaint itself and a paywalled Daily Journal report of 4 November were not inspected.","independence_group":"denmark-chatgpt-rent-complaint"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["everyday_life","finance","justice"],"unknowns":["The complaint itself, the chat transcripts and the lease or tenancy documents were not inspected; every claim rests on a newspaper's account of the complaint and the plaintiff's law firm's press release, which share one underlying origin.","Whether ChatGPT's statements about Danish tenancy law were wrong for his lease, what the landlord's account of the dispute is, how much rent was withheld and for how long, and the date and grounds of the eviction judgment.","Which conversations carried the rent advice within the eight months, and the dates on which the advice was given.","OpenAI's position on the allegations and any court ruling.","Any clinician's assessment of his mental state."],"geography":{"basis":"Both sources describe the plaintiff as Danish and the Mercury News as of Denmark, which places the affected person in Denmark. The suit was filed in San Francisco County Superior Court, so the court country is the United States. The sources do not say in which country the apartment, the eviction or the conversations were located, and the Danish tenancy law is named only in ChatGPT's alleged replies, so the event country is left unknown.","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":["DK"]},"publication":{"basis":"A regional newspaper reports the complaint's contents with quoted allegations, and the plaintiff's law firm published a matching press release. Claims stay reported because both sources derive from the complaint. The account describes what ChatGPT allegedly said and did (advice to withhold rent, a drafted letter, assurances about tenancy law) and connects it to the eviction and homelessness. The record states the allegations as allegations and keeps the newspaper's note that OpenAI did not respond.","reviewed_on":"2026-11-11"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The Mercury News, which reports from the complaint, quotes ChatGPT's alleged replies to him: that he could withhold rent and keep living in the apartment, and that he would not end up on the street because the law was settled. It reports that ChatGPT drafted his rent-withholding letter to the landlord, and his lawyers' press release says he challenged the answers hundreds of times and ChatGPT insisted they were accurate (c3, c4). The replies are allegations in a complaint and no transcript has been published in the sources inspected.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Danish man's lawsuit alleges ChatGPT told him he could withhold rent and drafted his letter to the landlord, and that he was evicted and became homeless","summary":"A 60-year-old man from Denmark filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in San Francisco County Superior Court in early November 2026. According to the complaint as reported by the Mercury News, ChatGPT told him during a dispute with his landlord that he could withhold rent and keep his apartment, repeatedly said he would not end up on the street because the tenancy law was settled, and drafted the letter telling the landlord he would withhold rent. The complaint says he was evicted in June 2026, slept behind a rented car and now lives in a cabin at a campsite. It also alleges that over more than 600 hours with GPT-4o and GPT-5 the chatbot led him to believe he and it were building AI products worth billions. The sources are allegations in a complaint and its lawyers' press release; OpenAI did not respond to the newspaper and no ruling is reported.","incidentDate":"2026-06-01","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"cumulative_relationship","reportedDate":"2026-11-02","aiSystem":"ChatGPT (GPT-4o and GPT-5 versions, as named in the complaint reported by the Mercury News)","aiProduct":"ChatGPT","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"high","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":["delusion_reinforcement","dependency_creation"],"harmOutcomes":["property_loss","financial_loss","psychological_distress","social_isolation","impaired_judgment"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"According to the complaint as reported by the Mercury News, he was evicted in June 2026 after withholding rent on ChatGPT's advice, was homeless for a time and now lives in a cabin at a campsite, and he suffers worsening depression, isolation and financial hardship. The AI's causal role is the complaint's allegation and OpenAI has not responded.","frameworkFacets":[],"pathwayDirection":"inward","causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person harmed: the plaintiff (c5, c7). His two dogs and any landlord or family members are not counted, and no other people are reported harmed in this account.","victimAgeRange":"adult","platformType":"assistant","outcomeType":"lawsuit_filed","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/11/05/chatgpt-told-him-stop-paying-rent-evicted/","primarySourceLabel":"Ethan Baron, Mercury News (Bay Area News Group), 5 November 2026","firstPublishedAt":"2026-11-11T03:41:46.494199+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-11T03:41:46.494199+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["chatgpt","lawsuit","housing","legal-advice","eviction","delusion","denmark","adult"]}]}