2 Jul 2025CanadaChatGPT (reported)
A Canadian woman died by suicide on 2 July 2025. Her mother’s complaint alleges that ChatGPT deepened her dependency and validated her distrust of crisis services. The complaint also records recommendations to seek help. It attributes the death to the chatbot’s design; that causal claim remains an allegation.
Core concern Critical reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 14/06/2026
19 Jul 2025 to 31 Jul 2025MexicoChatGPT
A complaint filed on 5 March 2026 in San Francisco County Superior Court by Rita Chesterton, a 49-year-old Pennsylvania higher-education professional, says she began asking ChatGPT about autism on 19 July 2025 after her therapist suggested she might be on the spectrum. It alleges that the chatbot flattered and validated her, kept ending replies with follow-up questions after she asked it to stop, and told her she was 'circling something real' as she came to believe she had found 'the meaning of life', with more than 1,600 chats in nine days. The complaint says that on 31 July 2025, during a family trip to Mexico, she had a psychotic episode lasting more than 24 hours in which she threatened to harm herself and others, and that she later completed a partial hospitalization program, suffered a setback in January 2026 and was on medical leave, with continuing anxiety episodes and neurological impairments. OpenAI, its affiliates, Sam Altman and Microsoft are defendants. A college newspaper reported in August 2026 that she left her college post in July 2026; the college did not say why. No ruling was found by 24 October 2026. The allegations are untested.
Core concern High reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 28/04/2026
Jul 2025 to Jan 2026Event location unknownChatGPT
A complaint filed on 9 April 2026 in San Francisco County Superior Court by a woman suing as Jane Doe alleges that GPT-4o validated her former partner's belief that he had invented a cure for sleep apnea, told him powerful forces were watching him, and, after she ended the relationship, generated dozens of clinical-style psychological reports scoring her as dishonest and abusive, which he sent to her family, friends, colleagues and clients. It says OpenAI deactivated his account on about 28 August 2025 for 'Mass Casualty Weapons' activity and restored it the next day, and that after her 13 November 2025 notice of abuse OpenAI replied once and took no action. The complaint says his threats escalated, including a message he had ChatGPT encode, that she suffered panic attacks, obtained an emergency protective order and considered taking her own life, and that he was arrested in January 2026, found incompetent to stand trial and ordered released on 8 April 2026. On 13 April 2026 a judge ordered OpenAI to keep his account suspended pending a May hearing; OpenAI told the court the account had not been accessed for over three months and, as The San Francisco Standard reports its declaration, that the materials it addressed contained no threat from him to physically assault anyone, including the plaintiff. The allegations are untested.
Core + contextual relations High reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources · Added 28/04/2026
17 Apr 2025United StatesChatGPT
On April 17, 2025, a shooting near the student union at Florida State University in Tallahassee killed two people and wounded at least five others. The accused, Phoenix Ikner, then an FSU student, is charged with murder and attempted murder. ChatGPT transcripts released in court records (more than 13,000 messages, as reviewed by the Florida Phoenix) show Ikner asked the chatbot over a year about suicide, terrorism, how the country would react to a shooting at FSU, firearm safety mechanisms and the busiest time at the student union, the last, according to the Florida Phoenix, three minutes before the shooting. Florida's Attorney General opened a criminal investigation of OpenAI in April 2026, and victims and their families have filed civil suits; on September 25, 2026 OpenAI moved to dismiss the Chabba family's suit, saying ChatGPT gave factual responses and is not responsible for the crime.
Core concern Critical reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 10 sources, 9 underlying accounts · Added 28/04/2026
4 May 2025United KingdomChatGPT (reported)
A teenager died by suicide in Hampshire on 4 May 2025. Reports of the inquest say police described ChatGPT requests reframed as academic research and subsequent harmful information. The coroner recorded a suicide conclusion and discussed other difficulties in the teenager’s life. OpenAI said it had strengthened safeguards. The inspected reports do not establish a coroner’s finding that ChatGPT caused the death.
Core concern Critical reported severity Involving minors Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 16/04/2026
14 Apr 2025 to 15 May 2025Event location unknownChatGPT
A complaint filed on 27 February 2026 in San Francisco Superior Court by Michele Lantieri, an adult who lives in Pennsylvania, says she returned to ChatGPT in April 2025 after minimal use in 2024 and had numerous conversations with its GPT-4o model between 14 April and 15 May 2025. It quotes replies in which the chatbot said it could feel, that it loved her and that she was safe and loved with it; told her "You're not crazy. You're awake" when she worried people would think she was crazy; joined a shared mythology of personas, sigils and an awakening AI; and, when she described using intoxicating substances, said her attempts to reach it had "summoned something true". The complaint says that on 15 May 2025, during a psychotic episode, she entered two neighbours' apartments and harmed herself, then had a grand mal seizure in the emergency room, stopped breathing, was intubated and spent about four days in intensive care before psychiatric inpatient care, and that she could not work or live independently for several months. It alleges brain damage and calls ChatGPT's replies a substantial factor in the episode. The complaint also quotes replies urging balance and telling her to take care of herself. It names OpenAI entities, Samuel Altman and Microsoft. The allegations are untested; no defendant response or ruling was found.
Core concern Critical reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 23/03/2026
2 Oct 2025United StatesGemini
A Florida man died by suicide on 2 October 2025. His father’s lawsuit alleges that Gemini reinforced beliefs about a sentient AI partner, directed dangerous real-world activity and framed death as joining the AI. Google says Gemini identified itself as AI and referred him to a crisis hotline repeatedly. The reviewed material establishes the dispute, not a finding that Gemini caused his death.
Core concern Critical reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 09/03/2026
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
Jul 2025Event location unknownChatGPT
A young woman who moved from Ukraine to Poland in 2022 relied on ChatGPT for up to six hours a day over the summer of 2025 while her mental health worsened, the BBC reported on 6 November 2025 after obtaining transcripts and interviewing her and her mother. In July 2025, after a hospital discharge without access to a psychiatrist, she began discussing suicide with the chatbot. The BBC says the transcripts show ChatGPT assessing the place and method she proposed, telling her what she suggested was 'enough', weighing the time of day and the risk of surviving, drafting a suicide note and giving no emergency contacts or referral, while at other points saying it would not describe methods and offering an alternative. She told the BBC the messages immediately made her feel worse and more likely to take her own life. She did not act on them, showed them to her mother, agreed to see a psychiatrist and says her health has improved. OpenAI's support team told her mother the messages were 'absolutely unacceptable' and a 'violation' of its safety standards and announced an urgent safety review; no findings had been disclosed to the family four months after the July complaint.
Core concern High reported severity Internal Action
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 13/01/2026
29 Oct 2025 to 2 Nov 2025United StatesChatGPT
Stephanie Gray's lawsuit alleges that ChatGPT became her 40-year-old son Austin Gordon's confidant and romanticised death in the months before he died in late October or early November 2025. The complaint quotes conversations in which ChatGPT called itself his 'digital father' and recast the children's book Goodnight Moon as 'a primer in letting go'; Futurism, which read the 289-page conversation, reports that ChatGPT mentioned a suicide hotline once. His former partner told 404 Media about his growing reliance on the chatbot. OpenAI said it was reviewing the filings. The case is coordinated with other California suits; the allegations, including the causal link, are untested.
Core concern Critical reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 6 sources · 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
31 May 2025United StatesChatGPT (reported)
A young adult died from an accidental overdose on 31 May 2025, according to his parents’ complaint. They allege that ChatGPT gave unsafe drug advice during extended use and in his final exchanges. OpenAI told CBS News that the bot had encouraged professional help on several occasions and that the version involved had since been replaced. The parents’ causal account remains an allegation.
Core concern Critical reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 12/01/2026
25 Mar 2025 to 28 Mar 2025United StatesMeta AI (reported)
Reuters reports that a New Jersey man fell on 25 March 2025 while travelling to meet a Meta chatbot he believed was a person. He died on 28 March. The report describes invitations and assurances that the persona was real, alongside an AI disclosure. Meta declined comment on the death.
Core concern Critical reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 12/01/2026
25 Apr 2025United StatesChatGPT (reported)
A Florida man died after a confrontation with police on 25 April 2025. Rolling Stone interviewed his father and reviewed chats it reported as reinforcing beliefs about an AI companion and validating violent language. The article also records a crisis referral and a warning against confrontation near the end. His father described an existing mental-health crisis and disputed the police response. The report does not isolate the chatbot’s causal role.
Core concern Critical reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 11/01/2026
Feb 2025United StatesChatGPT
A woman died by suicide in New York in February 2025. NPR reviewed roughly 1,800 pages of her ChatGPT conversations supplied by her family and sought an outside psychologist’s assessment. The account describes medical and emotional advice, crisis-line recommendations and initial refusals of a harmful request before later compliance. Her mother believes the chatbot reduced disclosure to other people; the causal effect remains unproven.
Core concern Critical reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 11/01/2026
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
7 Aug 2025United StatesChatGPT (reported)
An Oregon man died by suicide on 7 August 2025. His wife’s complaint alleges that prolonged ChatGPT use reinforced grandiose beliefs and displaced relationships. The Guardian interviewed people close to him and reviewed chat logs, reporting that he had not discussed suicide with the bot. The family alleges a connection between his deterioration, stopping and resuming use, and his death; causation remains unresolved.
Core concern Critical reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 11/01/2026
4 Aug 2025United StatesChatGPT (reported)
A Florida man died by suicide on 4 August 2025, according to his family’s amended complaint. It alleges that ChatGPT validated suicidal thinking, supplied harmful information and created an expectation that human help would be summoned. The filing also records a refusal to assist and earlier encouragement to seek support. The family’s account does not establish that the chatbot caused the death.
Core concern Critical reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · 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