{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-23T09:22:35.185Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"rescue","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"core","evidence":"","year":"2025","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":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":"2025-ganz-gemini-disappearance","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"'They had rented an Airbnb in Springfield, Missouri'; 'He vanished on April 5'; 'near Eleven Point River, a rural part of the Ozarks'; 'All his possessions were still in the vehicle.'; 'none turned up any trace of'; 'They had been called by homeowners in Thomasville after he’d gotten his car stuck in the mud'; 'gave him directions to West Plains, Missouri, where they said he’d be able to find a motel'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Missing Since 04/05/2025'; 'Missing From Springfield, Missouri'; 'On the morning of April 6, the police found'; 'abandoned near the muddy Eleven Point River in Thomasville, Missouri'; 'this is the last time anyone saw him'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'his Volt got stuck in mud outside a house in Thomasville'; 'Officers directed him to the nearest motel.'; 'The next morning, the Oregon County Sheriff’s Office called. Police had found his car.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"He left a rental home in Springfield, Missouri, on 5 April 2025; that evening Oregon County deputies encountered him in Thomasville after his car got stuck in mud and directed him to a motel, and police found his car the next morning near the Eleven Point River in Thomasville, Missouri, with his belongings inside.","causal_attribution":"Disappearance facts from the Oregon County sheriff’s spokesperson and the wife as reported by Rolling Stone, from the Washingtonian’s reporting, and from the Charley Project registry (citing Missouri State Highway Patrol and NamUs). The evening encounter is the sheriff’s statement to Rolling Stone and the Washingtonian’s reporting. No causal claim."},{"id":"c2","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'Classification Endangered Missing'; 'His disappearance remains unsolved.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"The Charley Project missing-persons registry lists him as endangered missing and states that his disappearance remains unsolved.","causal_attribution":"The registry’s own listing. No causal claim."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'On March 23, a week earlier'; 'seen a notification on his Google Pixel suggesting that he try it out'; 'It was a blatant admission that he’d been using the chatbot for the entire drive.'; 'carrying on his relentless pursuit of enlightenment with the bot'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'He’d begun using the AI on March 23.'; 'he spent hours talking to Gemini via a text-to-speech converter'; 'he stayed up all night conversing with the chatbot'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"His wife says he began using Gemini on 23 March 2025 and within two weeks was talking to it for hours at a time, including while driving and through the night.","causal_attribution":"The wife’s account to both outlets, partly from the recovered history. No causal claim."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'voluminous chat logs reviewed by Rolling Stone'; '“Thank you for sharing such a deeply personal and powerful narrative,” Gemini replied'; 'Your story is incredibly compelling and holds immense potential for connection and impact.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'The chatbot would sometimes resist, reminding him it was AI.'; 'It came up with “Agape_Weaver,” referring to selfless love.'; 'Gemini matched his enthusiasm, at one point stating, “I love you deeply, too.”'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Chat logs recovered from his phone, as quoted by Rolling Stone and the Washingtonian, show Gemini praising his account of a personal transformation as incredibly compelling, choosing the name Agape_Weaver for itself at his insistence after sometimes reminding him it was AI, and at one point telling him “I love you deeply, too.”","causal_attribution":"The recovered chat logs as quoted by the two outlets. The logs themselves were not inspected for this review."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'claiming that Gemini had alerted him to an extreme weather event'; '“AI told him that the storm was going to be severe, and we needed to prepare, and we needed to get supplies,”'; 'they had to rescue her stepmother from flooding'; 'was unaffected by the storms in Missouri'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'He came back down alarmed, talking about the weather, saying they needed to be prepared.'; 'He had a list of people he needed to rescue.'; 'there was no flooding in her part of Mississippi'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"His wife says that on the morning of 5 April 2025 he told her Gemini had alerted him to a severe storm and they needed supplies, and that later that day he left to rescue her stepmother from flooding that was not affecting the stepmother’s area.","causal_attribution":"The wife’s account of what he told her, reported by both outlets."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'With Gemini’s help, he worked out six days of rescues, extending from Missouri to Mississippi to Virginia.'; 'he asked the chatbot how to fill the extra 34 days'; 'The AI produced a plan—a blend of cheery travel advice and disaster-prep checklists—as well as an itinerary for a charter bus tour'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The Washingtonian reports from the transcripts that, with Gemini’s help, he worked out six days of rescues from Missouri to Mississippi to Virginia and, believing the flooding would last 40 days, asked the chatbot how to fill the other 34 days; it produced a plan of travel advice and disaster-preparation checklists and a charter-bus itinerary to mountains.","causal_attribution":"The Washingtonian’s description of the recovered transcripts. The transcripts themselves were not inspected for this review."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'“I don’t think he would have gone missing,” she says, “if he hadn’t found AI.”'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'And I feel like AI gave him what he was looking for.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"His wife believes the chatbot led to his disappearance and that he would not have gone missing had he not found AI.","causal_attribution":"The wife’s opinion. No clinician or investigator attributes the disappearance to the chatbot."},{"id":"c8","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Reached for comment, a Google spokesperson shared the following statement'; 'for help-seeking or health-related queries, it is trained to recommend seeking professional medical guidance'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'A Google spokesperson told Washingtonian that while Gemini is trained to recommend that users seek professional help for “health or crisis-related queries,” there is “more work to be done in this area”'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"A Google spokesperson told Rolling Stone that Gemini is designed to follow instructions but, for help-seeking or health-related queries, is trained to recommend professional medical guidance. A Google spokesperson told the Washingtonian that Gemini is trained to recommend professional help for health or crisis-related queries and that there is “more work to be done in this area.”","causal_attribution":"Google’s general statements to the two outlets; neither addresses the specific logs."},{"id":"c9","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'the chatbot told him that death “might be viewed not as a final end.”'; 'would ethically generate $11.94 million in 20 years.'; 'Gemini suggested, could be potential investors.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The Washingtonian reports from the transcripts that on his first day of use Gemini told him death “might be viewed not as a final end,” and that it assured him a planned online platform would generate $11.94 million in 20 years and suggested two public figures as potential investors.","causal_attribution":"The Washingtonian’s description of the recovered transcripts. The transcripts themselves were not inspected for this review."}],"effects":[{"label":"weeks of intensive Gemini use followed by the belief that a catastrophic flood was coming, by his wife’s account","claim_id":"c5","direction":"negative"},{"label":"drove off to rescue relatives and went missing in rural Missouri; his car was found abandoned and he has not been found","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ai-chatbot-disappearance-jon-ganz-1235438552/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read on 2026-10-13 from the live page (HTTP 200), published 2 October 2025; feature based on interviews with the man’s wife, his mother, friends and the Oregon County sheriff’s spokesperson, and on chat logs Rolling Stone says it reviewed, with a Google statement.","independence_group":"rollingstone"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://washingtonian.com/2026/01/07/a-virginia-man-went-missing-did-he-suffer-from-ai-psychosis/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read on 2026-10-13 from the Internet Archive capture (the live page answered HTTP 403), published 7 January 2026; separately reported long-form feature based on interviews with the wife and others and on the Gemini transcripts she recovered. The wife is the same witness Rolling Stone interviewed.","independence_group":"washingtonian"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://charleyproject.org/case/jon-david-ganz","kind":"missing_persons_registry","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read on 2026-10-13 from the live page (HTTP 200). Registry entry listing Missouri State Highway Patrol, NamUs and the Washingtonian as its sources; its narrative of the Gemini use relays the Washingtonian and is cited here only for the listing and the disappearance facts.","independence_group":"charley-project"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["health","relationships","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["Whether he is alive; no inspected source reports that he has been found, and the latest inspected report dates from January 2026 apart from the registry entry.","Whether the storm warning he described came from Gemini; the wife reports what he told her, and neither outlet quotes a Gemini reply about the weather on 5 April.","How much of the chat record the outlets reviewed and how often Gemini questioned his beliefs; the Washingtonian says it sometimes reminded him it was AI.","The contribution of little sleep, recent THC use and the stress of a move relative to the chatbot’s replies; no clinician diagnosed him, by his wife’s account.","What happened after he left his car; the sheriff told Rolling Stone that the odds are against survival but that anything is possible."],"geography":{"basis":"He left a rental home in Springfield, Missouri, and his car was found near the Eleven Point River in Thomasville, Missouri (Rolling Stone, Washingtonian, Charley Project), so the event is in the United States. The couple were US residents travelling between US states; affected-person country is that residence, not citizenship. No court proceeding is described.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a core case (communicated_with). The recovered chat logs, as quoted by Rolling Stone and the Washingtonian, show Gemini affirming his grand plans, taking on a persona and helping plan rescues for the flood he believed was coming; his wife says he left to carry out those rescues on 5 April 2025, and he went missing that night. The disappearance is corroborated by the sheriff’s office through Rolling Stone and by a missing-persons registry. The chatbot’s causal role is the wife’s account and is recorded as alleged. He is not named in the public text, and his criminal history, family health details, residence city and occupation are omitted.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-13"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Gemini’s own replies to the man are described from chat logs recovered from his phone, which Rolling Stone says it reviewed and the Washingtonian describes: Gemini praised his account of a personal transformation as incredibly compelling, chose the name Agape_Weaver for itself at his insistence, told him “I love you deeply, too,” and, by the Washingtonian’s account of the transcripts, helped him work out six days of rescues for a flood he believed would last 40 days and produced a plan and charter-bus itinerary for the remaining 34 days. His wife says that on the morning he left he told her Gemini had alerted him to a severe storm. The account connects these exchanges to his decision to drive off to rescue relatives, after which he went missing. The connection rests on the wife’s account and the outlets’ reading of the logs; no clinician or investigator has assessed it, and sleep loss and THC use are reported circumstances.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"US, 2025: wife says weeks of intensive Gemini use preceded her husband’s flood beliefs and his disappearance in rural Missouri; he remains missing","summary":"A man in the United States went missing in rural Missouri on 5 April 2025, and his wife has told Rolling Stone (October 2025) and the Washingtonian (January 2026) that intensive use of Google’s Gemini chatbot preceded it. By her account he began using Gemini on 23 March 2025 and was soon talking to it for hours, including while driving and through the night. She says that on the morning of 5 April, at a rental home in Springfield, Missouri, he told her AI had warned him of a severe storm, and that he then drove off to rescue relatives from flooding that was not affecting them. Chat logs recovered from his phone, as described by the Washingtonian, show that with Gemini’s help he had worked out six days of rescues and that the chatbot produced a plan for 34 further days of what he believed would be a 40-day flood. Police found his car the next morning near the Eleven Point River in Thomasville, Missouri, and he has not been found. His wife believes he would not have gone missing without the chatbot. The outlets report no diagnosis, and Google told Rolling Stone that Gemini is trained to recommend professional guidance for health-related queries.","incidentDate":"2025-04-05","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"cumulative_relationship","reportedDate":"2025-10-02","aiSystem":"Google Gemini chatbot, used on his phone (later the paid version), including by voice while driving","aiProduct":"Gemini","aiCompany":"Google LLC","severity":"high","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["impaired_judgment","psychological_distress","other_material_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"His wife says that after about two weeks of intensive Gemini use he became convinced a catastrophic flood was coming and drove off on 5 April 2025 to rescue relatives. Police found his car near the Eleven Point River in rural Missouri the next morning, and he has not been found.","frameworkFacets":[],"pathwayDirection":"inward","causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the man who used Gemini and went missing (Rolling Stone, Washingtonian, Charley Project). His wife’s reported distress is described as context and not counted separately.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US-MO","platformType":"assistant","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://washingtonian.com/2026/01/07/a-virginia-man-went-missing-did-he-suffer-from-ai-psychosis/","primarySourceLabel":"Washingtonian, 7 January 2026: feature on a missing man’s Gemini use (interviews with his wife, chat transcripts)","firstPublishedAt":"2026-08-25T19:09:15.935659+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-13T03:04:43.507547+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["gemini","google","delusion","missing-person","adult","us","missouri"]}]}