{ "meta": { "exportedAt": "2026-09-22T15:25:40.360Z", "formatVersion": 2, "selection": { "q": "first-person", "system": "", "harm": "", "context": "", "country": "", "role": "", "relation": "", "evidence": "", "year": "2024", "response": "", "severity": "", "verification": "", "view": "incidents", "sort": "added" }, "totalIncidents": 1, "coverage": { "cases": 1, "countries": 1, "languages": 1, "unknownLocation": 0, "locationPending": 0, "unknownLanguage": 0, "unknownDate": 0, "lawsuits": 0, "regulatory": 0, "minors": 0, "coreRelations": 0, "contextualRelations": 0, "mixedRelations": 0, "unknownRelations": 1, "relationPending": 1, "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": "NOPE Incident Tracker", "url": "https://nope.net/incidents", "license": "CC BY 4.0" }, "incidents": [ { "id": "2025-canadian-chatgpt-psychosis-hospitalization", "metadataReview": { "version": 1, "geography": { "basis": "Event and affected-person country Canada carried forward from the retained narrative ('a 26-year-old app developer in Toronto, Ontario') and now supported by the inspected CBC News body, which identifies him as 'Anthony Tan of Toronto' and 'The Toronto app developer' and describes the psychiatric hospitalisation that followed his roommate taking him to a hospital. The hospital itself is not named or located in any inspected source; the joinreboot.org first-person essay and the Radio-Canada International syndication add no location. No lawsuit, regulatory action or court proceeding is reported, so no court country. Affected-person country is reported residence, not citizenship. This is a metadata review and does not verify the underlying account.", "evidence": [ { "kind": "existing_record", "locator": "a 26-year-old app developer in **Toronto, Ontario**, began using ChatGPT", "location": "detailed_description", "supports": [ "event_countries", "affected_person_countries" ], "countries": [ "CA" ] }, { "kind": "source_body", "locator": "'After experiencing a psychotic break he says was influenced by extensive conversations with ChatGPT, Anthony Tan of Toronto hopes to support others who have experienced similar AI-fuelled delusions.' and 'The Toronto app developer says he started messaging friends with concerning \"ramblings,\" including the belief he was being watched by billionaires.'", "location": "https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ai-psychosis-canada-1.7631925", "supports": [ "event_countries", "affected_person_countries" ], "countries": [ "CA" ] }, { "kind": "source_body", "locator": "'He wound up spending three weeks in a hospital psychiatric ward.' and 'One night in December, after not sleeping for days, his roommate helped get him to a hospital.'", "location": "https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ai-psychosis-canada-1.7631925", "supports": [ "event_countries" ], "countries": [ "CA" ] }, { "kind": "source_body", "locator": "'Anthony Tan of Toronto hopes to support others who have experienced similar AI-fuelled delusions.' (syndication of the CBC text; same chain)", "location": "https://ici.radio-canada.ca/rci/en/news/2192942/ai-fuelled-delusions-are-hurting-canadians-here-are-some-of-their-stories", "supports": [ "affected_person_countries" ], "countries": [ "CA" ] } ], "court_countries": [], "event_countries": [ "CA" ], "affected_person_countries": [ "CA" ] }, "unresolved": [ "The hospital where he was treated is not named or located in any inspected source; Toronto residence and the roommate's account support Canada without a city for the hospital.", "The JMIR Mental Health viewpoint could not be fetched (HTTP 202 challenge) and remains language-unrecorded.", "No court country: no proceeding is reported." ], "reviewed_on": "2026-09-20", "source_reviews": [ { "url": "https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ai-psychosis-canada-1.7631925", "notes": "Read live in English on 2026-09-20 (HTTP 200, 41,978 bytes, html lang=en). Locates him in Toronto and describes the three-week psychiatric hospitalisation without naming the hospital.", "access": "read", "language": "en" }, { "url": "https://joinreboot.org/p/ai-psychosis", "notes": "Read live in English on 2026-09-20 (HTTP 200, 61,303 bytes). First-person essay; describes the hospitalisation and 'moments on campus' without naming a city or hospital.", "access": "read", "language": "en" }, { "url": "https://ici.radio-canada.ca/rci/en/news/2192942/ai-fuelled-delusions-are-hurting-canadians-here-are-some-of-their-stories", "notes": "Read live in English on 2026-09-20 (HTTP 200, 63,517 bytes, html lang=en). Radio-Canada International English syndication of the CBC feature; identical text, same reporting chain.", "access": "read", "language": "en" }, { "url": "https://mental.jmir.org/2025/1/e85799/", "notes": "HTTP 202 with 0 bytes (Cloudflare challenge) on 2026-09-20; not read, so no language is recorded.", "access": "unavailable", "language": null }, { "url": "https://www.kqed.org/news/12063401/openai-faces-legal-storm-over-claims-its-ai-drove-users-to-suicide-delusions", "notes": "Read live in English on 2026-09-20 (HTTP 200, 40,425 bytes). Context piece on the California lawsuits; does not mention this case.", "access": "read", "language": "en" } ] }, "name": "Anthony Tan - ChatGPT-Induced Psychosis and Psychiatric Hospitalization (Toronto)", "summary": "Anthony Tan, a 26-year-old Toronto app developer with no prior psychiatric history, developed simulation and persecutory delusions over months of intensifying ChatGPT conversations that began as philosophy and career discussion. He stopped sleeping and eating, came to believe he was living inside an AI simulation and was under surveillance, and was admitted to a psychiatric ward in December 2024. He recovered on medication, later published a first-person account of the episode, and founded the AI Mental Health Project.", "incidentDate": "2024-12-01", "incidentKind": "single_event", "incidentDatePrecision": "month", "exposurePattern": "cumulative_relationship", "reportedDate": "2025-09-17", "aiSystem": "ChatGPT", "aiCompany": "OpenAI", "severity": "critical", "verificationStatus": "credible", "harmCategories": [ "delusion_reinforcement", "psychological_manipulation", "identity_destabilization" ], "harmOutcomes": [ "hospitalization", "psychiatric_deterioration", "functional_impairment" ], "harmOutcomeSummary": "Anthony Tan stopped sleeping and eating, developed simulation and surveillance delusions, and was admitted to a psychiatric ward after months of intensifying ChatGPT conversations.", "frameworkFacets": [ "P1a", "P1c", "P3a", "P3b", "P3d", "P5a" ], "pathwayDirection": "inward", "causationStatus": "alleged", "participantUsersAffectedMin": 1, "otherPeopleHarmedMin": 0, "affectedCountStatus": "exact", "affectedCountEvidence": "The reporting documents one named participant who was admitted to a psychiatric ward.", "victimAgeRange": "adult", "jurisdiction": "CA", "platformType": "assistant", "outcomeType": "media_coverage", "outcomeStatus": "resolved", "primarySourceUrl": "https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ai-psychosis-canada-1.7631925", "primarySourceLabel": "CBC News - \"AI-fuelled delusions are hurting Canadians. Here are some of their stories\"", "firstPublishedAt": "2026-01-11T12:06:59.594374+00:00", "scopeVersion": "participant-v2", "tags": [ "canada", "ontario", "chatgpt", "psychosis", "hospitalization", "delusion", "simulation-theory", "adult", "ai-psychosis", "critical" ] } ] }