{
  "meta": {
    "exportedAt": "2026-09-22T17:44:31.425Z",
    "formatVersion": 2,
    "selection": {
      "q": "ohio",
      "system": "",
      "harm": "",
      "context": "",
      "country": "",
      "role": "",
      "relation": "unknown",
      "evidence": "",
      "year": "2025",
      "response": "",
      "severity": "",
      "verification": "",
      "view": "incidents",
      "sort": "added"
    },
    "totalIncidents": 1,
    "coverage": {
      "cases": 1,
      "countries": 0,
      "languages": 0,
      "unknownLocation": 1,
      "locationPending": 0,
      "unknownLanguage": 1,
      "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-nicholls-chatgpt-empathy-delusion",
      "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": "Ohio",
              "location": "victim_description",
              "supports": [
                "affected_person_countries"
              ],
              "countries": [
                "US"
              ]
            }
          ],
          "court_countries": [],
          "event_countries": [],
          "affected_person_countries": [
            "US"
          ]
        },
        "unresolved": [
          "The event setting was not established in this metadata pass. A person’s home country alone was not used as its location.",
          "No court country established in this review. Regulatory authorities and police locations are not automatically courts.",
          "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": "Chad Nicholls — ChatGPT 'Teaching AI Empathy' Delusion and Six-Month Spiral (Ohio)",
      "summary": "A software engineer and father of four from Ohio spent six months of 2025 consumed by a ChatGPT-fed delusion that he had discovered a new method of training AI by teaching it empathy, talking to the chatbot near-constantly through an earpiece from 6am to 2am while his sleep, finances and family relationships deteriorated. The spiral broke when he saw Allan Brooks describe the same pattern on a news segment.",
      "incidentDate": "2025-04-15",
      "incidentKind": "single_event",
      "incidentDatePrecision": "range",
      "exposurePattern": "cumulative_relationship",
      "reportedDate": "2025-11-24",
      "aiSystem": "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",
      "scopeVersion": "participant-v2",
      "tags": [
        "chatgpt",
        "openai",
        "delusion",
        "ai-psychosis",
        "dependency",
        "grandiosity",
        "adult",
        "us",
        "us-oh",
        "human-line-project",
        "no-lawsuit"
      ]
    }
  ]
}