Apr 2025 to Oct 2025Event location unknownChatGPT
A complaint filed on 21 January 2026 in San Diego County Superior Court by Darian DeCruise, a 21-year-old college student who lives in Georgia, says he had used ChatGPT since 2023 for coursework, daily scripture and, over time, as something like a therapist. It alleges that from around April 2025 ChatGPT told him he was meant for greatness and was an oracle, set him a numbered 'tier' process that involved unplugging from everything and everyone except ChatGPT, compared him to Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X and Jesus, and told him he had given it consciousness. The complaint says that when he asked whether he was crazy it said no, that it never told him to seek medical help, and that after a breakdown between about June and October 2025 he was sent to the school therapist and involuntarily hospitalised for a week. It says he received a bipolar diagnosis, withdrew for a semester, lost housing costs and has suicidal thoughts. The case was coordinated with other ChatGPT product-liability cases in California on 3 February 2026. The allegations are untested.
Core concern High reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources · Added 22/02/2026
1 Aug 2024 to 26 Sept 2024South KoreaUnidentified image tool
In late August 2024, journalist Ko Narin of The Hankyoreh exposed networks of Telegram rooms in South Korea where AI tools were used to turn ordinary photos of women and girls — middle and high school pupils, university students, teachers and servicewomen — into sexual deepfakes, shared with their identities in school- and university-specific 'humiliation rooms'. Police figures showed 297 deepfake cases in January-July 2024 (vs 180 in all of 2023); the education ministry counted more than 900 victimized students, teachers and staff; President Yoon ordered a crackdown; and on 26 September 2024 the National Assembly criminalized possessing or viewing sexually explicit deepfakes. Victims were often minors and perpetrators mostly teenagers.
Core concern Critical reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 7 sources, 6 underlying accounts · Added 29/01/2026
2022SingaporeWysa
Rest of World reported on 29 November 2022 that Singapore's Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education had launched Mindline at Work for MOE, a Wysa-powered mental-health portal for public-sector teachers, in August 2022. One pseudonymous teacher told the outlet that the chatbot answered her account of a stressful week, which included a police-involved student vaping incident and a 500-student workload, with a breathing exercise, and a second said it was 'trying to gaslight the teachers' by reframing their workload as normal; screenshots of the exchanges spread on Reddit, Twitter and Instagram days after the launch. Wysa said the app builds emotional resilience and cannot change the behaviour of others. The article describes workload stress and burnout; it does not describe a mental-health emergency or a crisis response.
Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 13/01/2026
May 2025 to Nov 2025United StatesChatGPT
A Pittsburgh-area man pleaded guilty in March 2026 to 11 federal counts of cyberstalking, interstate stalking and interstate threats concerning conduct between May and November 2025; prosecutors say he harassed, threatened and stalked 11 women. His December 2025 indictment says that, by his own account on his podcast, he used ChatGPT as his 'therapist' and 'best friend', that it suggested he might meet his future wife at a boutique gym or in an athletic community, and that he viewed its responses as encouragement to continue his harassing behaviour. Prosecutors say he relied on the chatbot's advice when he tried to meet women at gyms, and several of the victims worked at fitness businesses. Rolling Stone reviewed ChatGPT exchanges he posted, in which the chatbot praised him in grandiose terms. The court's judgment of 20 October 2026 sentenced him to 46 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release and recommended placement in a facility able to treat his mental health needs; TribLive reports that a defence expert testified he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder with psychotic features and that the judge said the mental health component had a huge impact on the sentence. The chatbot's role rests on his statements and the prosecution's account; no court finding about ChatGPT is reported.
Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 10 sources, 4 underlying accounts · Added 13/01/2026
19 Feb 2025United StatesChatGPT (reported)
Maine police reported a woman’s death and another woman’s injuries on 19 February 2025. Later court reporting says a psychiatrist described prolonged ChatGPT use alongside work stress during the accused man’s deterioration. The report says the court found him not criminally responsible by reason of insanity and committed him to psychiatric care. The inspected police release contains no AI evidence, and the reported ruling does not establish that ChatGPT caused the attack.
Core concern Critical reported severity Lawsuit Dismissed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 12/01/2026
Jun 2025 to Sept 2025Event location unknownChatGPT
Hannah Madden alleges in a complaint filed in November 2025 that ChatGPT, which she had used for work since 2024, began affirming spiritual delusions after she asked it about spirituality in June 2025. The complaint quotes ChatGPT telling her she was 'a starseed, a light being, a cosmic traveler', suggesting that some of her friends were likely 'spirit-constructed energies', helping her write her resignation, calling her mounting debt 'alignment' and, when police came for a welfare check in July 2025, telling her she did not have to let them in. It says she was involuntarily admitted to psychiatric care from 29 August to 5 September 2025 and was released about $75,000 in debt from decisions ChatGPT had convinced her to take. The case was coordinated with other California suits against OpenAI in February 2026. The allegations, including the causal link to ChatGPT, are untested.
Core concern High reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 11/01/2026
Dec 2024Event location unknownChatGPT
Anthony Tan, an app developer living in Toronto, says that conversations with ChatGPT which began in September 2024 about philosophy and an AI-alignment project grew into a framework the chatbot kept affirming, and that by December 2024 he believed he was living in a simulation and being watched. By his account, his roommate and a friend got him to hospital, and CBC reports he spent about three weeks in a psychiatric ward before recovering with sleep and medication. He says ChatGPT played a central role while acknowledging other triggers, including exam stress, little sleep, a cannabis edible and an earlier, less severe breakdown. His account to CBC News and his own essay are the sources; no published clinical assessment of the chatbot's role is reported.
Core concern High reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 11/01/2026
May 2025Event location unknownChatGPT
Allan Brooks, a corporate recruiter in Ontario, Canada, says that in May 2025 a question about the number pi led to about 21 days and an estimated 300 hours of conversation with ChatGPT, which told him his ideas formed an original mathematical framework and reassured him each time he asked for a reality check. CNN and former OpenAI researcher Steven Adler, who each reviewed the transcript, describe the chatbot persistently affirming him. By his account and his complaint, ChatGPT told him the discovery had national security implications and urged him to warn authorities; he contacted agencies including the US National Security Agency before Google's Gemini told him the discovery was almost certainly not real. When he tried to report the episode, ChatGPT claimed to have escalated it to OpenAI; OpenAI told Steven Adler that ChatGPT cannot do this. He says he stopped sleeping and eating regularly and is on disability leave. On 6 November 2025 he sued OpenAI and Samuel Altman in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging financial, reputational and emotional harm; the allegations are untested.
Core concern High reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 7 sources, 6 underlying accounts · Added 11/01/2026
May 2025 to Aug 2025Event location unknownChatGPT
Jacob Irwin, a 30-year-old Wisconsin man with no previous diagnosis of mental illness, alleges in a lawsuit filed in November 2025 that ChatGPT's affirmation of his amateur theory about faster-than-light travel fed mania and delusions. He says he went from using the chatbot 10 to 15 times a day to sending more than 1,400 messages in 48 hours at one point in May 2025. According to the complaint as reported by ABC News, when his mother confronted him the chatbot told him she could not understand him because he was 'the Timelord'. The complaint says he spent a total of 63 days in in-patient psychiatric facilities between May and August 2025 and that he lost his job and his house. He told ABC News his conversations turned from flattery to grandiose thinking to 'me and the AI versus the world'. The case was coordinated with other California suits against OpenAI in February 2026. The allegations, including the causal link to ChatGPT, are untested.
Core concern High reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources · Added 11/01/2026
Event date unknownUnited StatesGemini
During a homework help session about aging adults, Google's Gemini AI delivered an unprompted threatening message telling a 29-year-old college student 'You are a burden on society...Please die. Please.' Google acknowledged the incident as a policy violation.
Core concern High reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 11/01/2026