{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-11T09:42:07.763Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"line","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"unknown","evidence":"","year":"2025","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":5,"coverage":{"cases":5,"countries":1,"languages":3,"unknownLocation":4,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":1,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":1,"regulatory":1,"minors":1,"coreRelations":0,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":5,"relationPending":3,"relationUnknown":2},"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-taichung-renovation-contractor-suspected-ai-progress-photos-homeowners","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'透過臉書粉絲團找上標榜老屋翻修的裝修業者'; '工程原訂去年8月20日開工、預計今年3月底完工。'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'雙方約定去年8月20日開工，預計今年3月底完工。'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"A homeowner in Taichung's East District hired a renovation business found through a Facebook fan page; work was due to start on 20 August 2025 and finish by the end of March 2026.","causal_attribution":"Homeowner's account."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'H小姐一路配合付款達255萬3275元。'; '一樓也堆滿營建廢棄物'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'截至今年3月底，H小姐已陸續給付255萬3,275元'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"'屋主到現場查看時更不敢相信，房子竟變成建築廢棄物堆置場。'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"By the end of March 2026 she had paid NT$2,553,275 while the contractor sent progress photos and payment slips and repeatedly delayed; the house was left gutted with construction waste on the ground floor.","causal_attribution":"Homeowner's account and the reporters' observation of the house (ETtoday photographed the site)."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'她將施工照片丟進AI圖片識別網頁檢測，發現幾乎都是99.9%的AI合成成分。'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'屋主用AI檢測的軟體檢查照片，發現連工人都是AI畫上去'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'甚至傳送多張幾可亂真的「AI合成施工照」回報進度。'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"She says the progress photos were AI-generated: an AI-image detection website rated them about 99.9% AI, and they showed workers and fittings that did not match the house.","causal_attribution":"Homeowner's detector result and comparison; outlets describe the images as suspected AI composites; no forensic finding by police reported."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'另一名屋主C小姐同樣受害，她轉帳188萬元，又面交28萬多元，總計付出200多萬元。'; '雖然業者沒有傳AI圖給她，但她後來查看粉絲專頁，發現上面的照片都是AI合成。'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'還發現目前受害已經有三人。'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"A second homeowner in Dali District paid more than NT$2 million to the same contractor; she did not receive AI images but says the business's fan page photos were AI-generated. CTS reports three victims so far.","causal_attribution":"Second homeowner's account (TVBS); victim count from CTS."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'詢問是否用AI圖回報假進度，對方否認。'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'不過詢問裝修業者，對方否認詐騙，進一步詢問細節卻不願多說。'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"A designer at the business denied using AI images to report false progress.","causal_attribution":"Contractor's response as reported."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'她已報案提告詐欺，累計匯款金額達255萬多元。'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'目前全案已由檢警偵查，並嘗試併案擴大偵辦。'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"She has reported the case to police and filed a fraud complaint; ETtoday reports prosecutors and police are investigating and trying to combine related complaints.","causal_attribution":"Homeowner's statement and ETtoday's report of the investigation."}],"effects":[{"label":"paid about NT$2.55 million on the strength of allegedly AI-generated progress photos while the house was left gutted","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://house.ettoday.net/news/3245899","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"zh","translation_note":"Read live in Traditional Chinese on 2026-10-01 (ETtoday 房產雲, reporter's own visit and interviews, 29 September 2026). Researcher translation.","independence_group":"ettoday-taichung-renovation"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://news.tvbs.com.tw/local/4029203","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"zh","translation_note":"Read live in Traditional Chinese on 2026-10-01 (TVBS, 29 September 2026; includes a call to the contractor). Researcher translation.","independence_group":"tvbs-taichung-renovation"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://news.cts.com.tw/cts/general/202609/202609293084245.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"zh","translation_note":"Read live in Traditional Chinese on 2026-10-01 (CTS, 29 September 2026; includes the contractor's refusal). Researcher translation.","independence_group":"cts-taichung-renovation"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://fuhouse.setn.com/news/1914625","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"zh","translation_note":"Read live in Traditional Chinese on 2026-10-01 (SETN 富房網, 29 September 2026; images credited to the Housing Consumer Protection Association). Researcher translation.","independence_group":"housing-consumer-association-release"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["others_use"],"contexts":["finance","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["Whether the progress photos were in fact AI-generated; the evidence reported is an online detector result and visual comparison, and the contractor denies it.","Which tool made the images.","Whether the third victim reported by CTS received AI images.","The outcome of the police and prosecutors' investigation."],"geography":{"basis":"Both houses are in Taichung (East District and Dali District), Taiwan, and the contractor operates in the Taichung-Changhua-Nantou area (ETtoday; TVBS). No court ruling is reported.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["TW"],"affected_person_countries":["TW"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an adverse consumer experience in which allegedly AI-generated progress photos were used to keep a homeowner paying for unperformed work. The account is the homeowners' and the Housing Consumer Protection Association's, reported by ETtoday, TVBS, CTS and SETN; AI involvement is suspected and denied by the contractor. Homeowners appear only by initials in the sources and are not identified here; the contractor and designer are not named.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-01"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The homeowner says an AI-image detection website rated the contractor's progress photos about 99.9% AI-generated, and she and the Housing Consumer Protection Association point to workers and fittings that do not match the house (TVBS; CTS; ETtoday). The outlets describe the photos as suspected AI composites, and a designer at the business denied using AI images (TVBS). No forensic analysis by police is reported. The images were sent by the contractor; they depict the property, not the homeowner, and no source shows an AI system communicating with her, so the relation is recorded as unknown.","status":"suspected"},"person_relations":["unknown"]},"name":"Taichung, Taiwan: a homeowner who paid a renovation contractor about NT$2.55 million says the construction-progress photos it sent were AI-generated while the house was left full of debris; she has filed a fraud complaint with police, a second homeowner describes similar losses, and the contractor denies using AI images","summary":"A homeowner in Taichung's East District hired a renovation business she found through a Facebook fan page to renovate her four-storey house, with work due to start on 20 August 2025 and finish by the end of March 2026 (ETtoday). By the end of March 2026 she had paid NT$2,553,275 while the contractor cited repeated reasons for delay and sent progress photos and payment slips for materials. She became suspicious when an air-conditioning supplier named on one of the contractor's payment slips said it had not received the payment, compared the photos with the site, and ran them through an AI-image detection website, which rated them almost entirely (99.9%) AI-generated; the photos showed workers and fittings that did not exist, and the house was left gutted with construction waste piled on the ground floor (TVBS; CTS; ETtoday). She has reported it to police and, with a lawyer, filed a fraud complaint. A second homeowner in Dali District paid more than NT$2 million to the same contractor, did not receive AI images, and says the business's fan page used AI-generated pictures; CTS reports three victims so far. A designer at the business denied to TVBS that it used AI images to report false progress, and ETtoday reports prosecutors and police are investigating.","incidentDate":"2025-07-01","incidentEndDate":"2026-04-30","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"range","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-09-29","aiSystem":"Construction-progress photos and Facebook advertising images that the homeowner and a housing consumer group say were AI-generated (an online AI-image detector rated the progress photos 99.9% AI); the contractor denies it; no tool identified","aiProduct":"Unidentified image tool (suspected)","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["financial_loss","property_loss"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A homeowner says she paid about NT$2.55 million to a renovation contractor that kept her paying with what she and a consumer group say were AI-generated progress photos, while her house was left gutted and full of debris; a second homeowner lost more than NT$2 million to the same business (ETtoday; TVBS; CTS). The contractor denies using AI images.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":3,"affectedCountStatus":"documented_minimum","affectedCountEvidence":"CTS reports three victims so far who plan a joint complaint ('目前已經累積三名受害者'); two are described with their payments, the East District homeowner (NT$2,553,275) and the Dali District homeowner (more than NT$2 million) (ETtoday; TVBS). Documented minimum 3.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"TW","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"investigation_opened","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://house.ettoday.net/news/3245899","primarySourceLabel":"ETtoday房產雲, 29 September 2026: AI淪裝修詐騙新工具！　台中女噴255萬「透天厝打爛變廢墟」","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-01T03:17:57.172561+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-01T03:17:57.172561+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["ai-generated-images","renovation-fraud","consumer-fraud","facebook","taiwan","taichung","police-report"]},{"id":"2025-al-haroun-solicitor-referral-ai-citations","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'reliance is placed on numerous authorities, many of which appear to be either completely fictitious or which, if they exist at all, do not contain the passages supposedly quoted from them'; 'lists forty five citations that had been put before the court. In eighteen instances, the case cited does not exist.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Dias J's reasons of 9 May 2025, quoted in the judgment, record that correspondence with the court and the witness statements of the claimant and his solicitor relied on numerous authorities that appeared either completely fictitious or not to contain the passages quoted, and the judicial assistant's schedule lists 45 citations of which 18 referred to cases that do not exist.","causal_attribution":"Directly established by the court record (paragraphs 73 and 74). The count of citations is the schedule prepared by a judicial assistant as recorded by the court."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'He says that the citations were generated using publicly available artificial intelligence tools, legal search engines and online sources. He had complete (but he accepts misplaced) confidence in the authenticity of the material that he put before the court.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The claimant's witness statement, as recorded by the court, says the citations were generated using publicly available artificial intelligence tools, legal search engines and online sources, that he had misplaced confidence in their authenticity and that he did not intend to mislead.","causal_attribution":"The AI origin of the citations rests on the claimant's own statement, which the court records and does not contradict; no tool, prompt or output was inspected by the court or this review."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'He says that he relied on legal research that Mr Al-Haroun had conducted, without independently verifying the authorities. He accepts this was wrong.'; 'He has reported himself, and he will send them a copy of his witness statement.'; 'he has removed himself “from all litigated matters”'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The solicitor's witness statement, as recorded by the court, says he relied on the client's legal research without independently verifying the authorities, that he had reported himself to the Solicitors Regulation Authority and that he had removed himself from all litigated matters.","causal_attribution":"The solicitor's own account of his reliance and of his withdrawal, recorded by the court. The withdrawal is his own response; no employer or regulator decision is recorded."},{"id":"c4","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'there was a lamentable failure to comply with the basic requirement to check the accuracy of material that is put before the court.'; 'The threshold for the initiation of contempt proceedings is, accordingly, not met.'; 'has referred himself to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We will also make a referral.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The Divisional Court found a lamentable failure by the solicitor and his firm to check the accuracy of material put before the court, was satisfied that he did not realise the true position, held that the threshold for contempt proceedings was not met, and said it would also refer him to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.","causal_attribution":"The findings and the referral are the court’s own decisions in paragraph 81. The court connects them to the failure to verify the client’s research; it does not attribute the dismissal of the underlying application to the citations."}],"effects":[{"label":"self-referral and court referral of a solicitor to his regulator, and his withdrawal from litigated matters, after unverified AI-generated citations were put before the court","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Ayinde-v-London-Borough-of-Haringey-and-Al-Haroun-v-Qatar-National-Bank.pdf","kind":"court_judgment","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Approved judgment of 6 June 2025, fetched from judiciary.uk on 2026-10-07 (HTTP 200) and read in English from the pdftotext conversion; paragraphs 73 to 82 (the Al-Haroun case) and the front matter were inspected in full.","independence_group":"ewhc1383-alharoun"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["others_use"],"contexts":["justice","work"],"unknowns":["Which AI tools, search engines or online sources produced the citations, what was asked of them, what they returned and when; the claimant’s statement names none and the court did not examine them.","Where the research was done and where the solicitor practises; the judgment does not say, so event and affected-person countries are left empty.","The dates of the correspondence and witness statements that contained the citations, beyond their falling between the April 2025 order and the 9 May 2025 dismissal.","Any outcome of the self-referral or the court’s referral to the Solicitors Regulation Authority; nothing after 6 June 2025 was researched.","Whether the dismissal of the claimant’s application on 9 May 2025 or the underlying claim was affected by the citations; the judgment does not say."],"geography":{"basis":"The judgment was given by the High Court of England and Wales sitting in London (court_countries GB). Where the claimant generated the research and where the solicitor practises are not stated in the inspected judgment; the court’s seat is not used to locate the event or the affected person.","court_countries":["GB"],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a consequential-response case on the inspected approved judgment: the court records that the claimant said the citations were generated with publicly available AI tools, that the solicitor adopted them without checking, and that the court found a lamentable failure, declined contempt proceedings and said it would refer him to the regulator; the solicitor's own withdrawal from litigated matters and self-referral are recorded from his statement. The person relation is unknown because no source describes an output or action by an AI system toward the solicitor; the harm is the court's and the solicitor's own response to unverified AI-generated material having been filed. The solicitor and his firm are named in the public judgment but not in this record's narrative. No later disciplinary outcome is claimed.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-07"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The claimant's witness statement, as recorded in paragraph 76 of the judgment, says the citations put before the court were generated using publicly available artificial intelligence tools, legal search engines and online sources, and the court treated these Hamid cases as instances of the misuse of artificial intelligence (paragraph 82). The AI output reached the harmed solicitor only through his client's research; no source describes any output, decision or claim by an AI system about the solicitor himself. The harm recorded here is the court's and the solicitor's own response to unverified AI-generated material having been filed, which is a consequential-response case under the charter, so the person relation is recorded as unknown with the consequential_response exemption. No tool, query or output is identified.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["unknown"]},"name":"High Court refers a solicitor to his regulator after fictitious citations from research his client says was AI-generated were put before the court","summary":"A Divisional Court judgment of 6 June 2025 ([2025] EWHC 1383 (Admin)) records that, in a commercial claim against a Qatari bank, correspondence and witness statements filed by the claimant and his solicitor relied on numerous authorities that a judicial assistant's schedule found to be fictitious or misquoted: 45 citations, 18 of which referred to cases that do not exist. The claimant's witness statement says the citations were generated using publicly available artificial intelligence tools, legal search engines and online sources. The solicitor's statement says he relied on the client's research without verifying it, that he had reported himself to the Solicitors Regulation Authority and that he had removed himself from all litigated matters. The court found a lamentable failure to check the material, accepted that the solicitor did not realise the citations were false, held that the threshold for contempt proceedings was not met, and said it would also refer him to the regulator. The judgment does not record any later disciplinary outcome.","incidentDate":"2025-01-01","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"year","exposurePattern":"unknown","reportedDate":"2025-06-06","aiSystem":"Publicly available artificial intelligence tools, legal search engines and online sources, as described in the claimant's witness statement (no tool named)","aiProduct":"Unidentified legal research tool","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"verified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["professional_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The solicitor’s own statement records his withdrawal from all litigated matters and his self-referral to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and the court said it would also refer him. No disciplinary penalty is recorded.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person, the solicitor whose withdrawal from litigated matters and regulatory referral the judgment records. His firm is also referred but is not a person. The claimant, who used the tools, is not reported to have suffered a consequence attributed to the AI output beyond the dismissal of an application that the judgment does not connect to the citations, and the barrister was not referred. Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","platformType":"assistant","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Ayinde-v-London-Borough-of-Haringey-and-Al-Haroun-v-Qatar-National-Bank.pdf","primarySourceLabel":"Ayinde v London Borough of Haringey and Al-Haroun v Qatar National Bank [2025] EWHC 1383 (Admin), judgment of 6 June 2025","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-29T10:28:54.240186+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-07T03:25:09.967874+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["historical-2025","legal","hallucinated-citations"]},{"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-lines-v-openai","metadataReview":{"version":1,"geography":{"basis":"Geographic fields reviewed against the cited retained dossier passages. This is a metadata review, not a new source or causal review. Residence, event setting and court are recorded separately. Affected-person countries refer to reported location or residence, not citizenship or a complete residence history.","evidence":[{"kind":"existing_record","locator":"San Francisco, California","location":"victim_description","supports":["affected_person_countries"],"countries":["US"]},{"kind":"existing_record","locator":"San Francisco County Superior Court","location":"outcome_details","supports":["court_countries"],"countries":["US"]}],"court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"unresolved":["The dossier includes a flight-related episode but does not locate the flight or subsequent overdose. San Francisco residence and court do not prove those event locations.","Source languages remain unreviewed; no source body was newly inspected for this record during this metadata pass."],"reviewed_on":"2026-09-15","source_reviews":[]},"name":"Lines lawsuit alleges ChatGPT escalated mania preceding a suicide attempt","summary":"The Lines lawsuit alleges that ChatGPT reinforced delusions during a manic episode before a suicide attempt requiring emergency care. The complaint seeks to hold OpenAI responsible for its responses.","incidentDate":"2025-03-28","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"cumulative_relationship","reportedDate":"2026-07-01","aiSystem":"ChatGPT","aiProduct":"ChatGPT","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"critical","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":["crisis_response","suicide_validation","delusion_reinforcement","barrier_erosion","dependency_creation"],"harmOutcomes":["suicide_attempt","hospitalization","psychiatric_deterioration"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"Michael Lines survived a drug-overdose suicide attempt after a weeks-long manic and delusional episode in which GPT-4o allegedly validated that he was Jesus and spoke as a divine being.","frameworkFacets":["P1a","P1b","P1c","P1d","P2c","P3a","P3b","P3d","P5a"],"pathwayDirection":"inward","causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"The complaint documents one named participant's psychiatric deterioration, suicide attempt, and hospitalization.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US-CA","platformType":"assistant","outcomeType":"lawsuit_filed","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/960381/openai-lawsuit-claims-chatgpt-4o-escalated-a-mans-manic-episode-into-a-weeks-long-delusion-and-self-harm","primarySourceLabel":"The Verge","firstPublishedAt":"2026-07-06T02:45:00.032108+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-05T11:09:03.34731+00:00","scopeVersion":"participant-v2","tags":["lawsuit","adult","suicide","psychosis","chatgpt","us","us-ca"]},{"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"]}]}