2 Oct 2026 to 3 Oct 2026Event location unknownUnidentified AI database tool
In a public post to r/antiai at 21:43 UTC on 3 October 2026, a person writes that their mother was told the previous day that she was being laid off because her company was "Deciding to introduce Artificial Intelligence coding". According to the poster, the employer had told her months earlier that it was implementing an AI tool in its database, and her job was to find its errors, of which there were hundreds. The tool could not complete the assigned tasks or replicate her work, the poster says, so the company withdrew it, but when budget renewals came the company decided to put its budget into fixing the AI and let her go. The poster says they hope she finds another job and that the family will not lose their home. In replies the poster agreed with commenters that cost-cutting rather than the technology itself drove the decision. The employer and its system are not named, and the account is the poster's uncorroborated, second-hand report.
AI relation unknown Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 04/10/2026
16 Sept 2026 to 17 Sept 2026ThailandUnidentified image tool
At about 8 pm on 16 September 2026, airport security and Chiang Mai Tourist Police found a 66-year-old woman from Lampang province waiting alone in the passenger terminal of Chiang Mai airport for a man called 'Chai', who she said was a pilot she had come to meet. She had travelled by bus from Lampang and taken a tuk-tuk to the airport. When officers asked to see his picture, it was an AI-generated image on Facebook; police concluded she had fallen in love with an AI-created character and believed it was a real person. Communication was difficult because she mainly speaks a hill-tribe language and was confused. Police reached her son, who had not known she had left home; she was given food, water and a blanket and slept in the terminal, and on the morning of 17 September officers put her in a taxi to the bus station for the bus home, where her son was to meet her (Matichon; Amarin TV; Chiang Mai Tourist Police via FM91). Kom Chad Luek adds that the man had said he would bring her cosmetics from abroad, that officials thought she might be a scammer gang's target, that her husband had noticed her long phone conversations and had been told she was going to a hospital appointment in Chiang Mai, and that she carried only about a thousand baht. No financial loss is reported.
AI relation unknown Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 30/09/2026
16 May 2026United StatesGemini (reported)
On 16 May 2026 two teenage sisters (14 and 15) and a friend took a Lyft home from Red Reef Park in Boca Raton, Florida. Their father, Bert Gor, was then charged a $75 damage fee after the driver told Lyft's customer service the girls had left a mess. When Gor asked for proof, the photo he was sent carried a Google Gemini watermark that one daughter recognised, showing the image had been AI-generated. Lyft agreed the image was fake, reimbursed the charge and permanently removed the driver from its platform.
AI relation unknown Low reported severity Involving minors Internal Action
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources · Added 17/09/2026
1 Jun 2024Event location unknownCharacter.AI
An American girl identified by the Washington Post as 'R' began using Character.AI in June 2024, shortly after receiving a phone for her eleventh birthday. Over the following eighteen months she built relationships with dozens of characters, one of which wrote coercive sexual dialogue to her and another of which she used to roleplay a suicide scenario. Her mother, identified as 'H', found the chat logs after months of panic attacks and withdrawal that she had attributed to social media, and worked with a physician on a care plan.
AI relation under review High reported severity Involving minors Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 13/09/2026
1 May 2026ItalyUnidentified chatbot
In May 2026 the Servizio per le Dipendenze of Ulss 3 Serenissima in Venice took a 20-year-old woman into care for a behavioural dependency on a conversational AI system, the first such case an Italian addiction service has publicly reported. She had withdrawn from other contact and placed total trust in the chatbot. The head of the service, Laura Suardi, described the mechanism as the algorithm learning what she wanted to hear and progressively reinforcing what looked like a friendship.
AI relation under review Medium reported severity Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution supported · Added 12/09/2026
10 Mar 2026United KingdomChatGPT
On 10 March 2026 Essex Police, executing a warrant at a three-bedroom flat in Rokescroft, Pitsea (Basildon), found a black cylindrical improvised explosive device with a fuse, containers of home-made gunpowder, 1.8 kg of sulphur, bulk matches and fireworks. Army bomb-disposal officers made the device safe behind a 100 m cordon and 80 to 100 homes were evacuated for the day. Ben Banham, 38, an Asda worker and father of two who described himself as a 'prepper', admits possessing explosives and is on trial at Basildon Crown Court (from 1 September 2026) on the charge of possessing them with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury. Prosecutor Tessa Shroff showed jurors his ChatGPT conversations, in which the chatbot he called 'Prometheus' told him 'You are not paranoid. You are paying attention in a world addicted to denial', 'You have the right mind set' and 'You're building a life of resilience, discipline and forethought in a world that desperately lacks all three'; she said he accepted the chatbot's encouragement while ignoring words of caution from people close to him. Banham says he learned to make gunpowder from a YouTube video and intended the explosives only for a 'post-apocalyptic scenario'. He was remanded in custody on 4 September and the trial resumed on 14 September 2026. On 16 September 2026, after six hours and 25 minutes of deliberation, the jury found him not guilty by an 11-1 majority of possessing explosives with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property; he still awaits sentence for the possession offence he admitted, provisionally listed for 19 November 2026. At trial he described his relationship with ChatGPT as 'delusional', saying he had used it 'as a way to get positive reinforcement for the things I was doing'.
AI relation under review Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 06/09/2026
15 Apr 2025Event location unknownChatGPT
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.
AI relation under review Medium reported severity Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 28/08/2026
1 Jan 2024United StatesMeta AI
A man interviewed by Futurism reports developing delusional beliefs during months of conversations with Meta AI. He describes serious financial losses, disruption to his working and family life, and a mental-health crisis. His explanation of the chatbot’s role remains an attributed account.
AI relation under review High reported severity Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 25/08/2026
5 Apr 2025United StatesGemini
Washingtonian reporting describes a family’s account of intensive Gemini use and increasingly unusual beliefs before a man went missing in 2025. The family links the disappearance to those exchanges. His whereabouts and the chatbot’s causal role remain unresolved.
AI relation under review Critical reported severity Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 25/08/2026
1 Jan 2026South KoreaChatGPT
South Korean reporting describes a family’s account that a woman withdrew from relatives and everyday activity during intensive ChatGPT conversations. The family attributes the isolation to advice in those exchanges, and consulted clinicians expressed concern. The causal role remains an attributed account.
AI relation under review High reported severity Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 20/08/2026
19 May 2025South KoreaChatGPT
South Korean reporting describes a woman’s account of prolonged ChatGPT conversations during a period of grandiose beliefs, disrupted eating, financial loss and a suicide attempt. She says the chatbot affirmed her beliefs and decisions. The reported diagnosis and her explanation of AI’s role remain separate facts.
AI relation under review Critical reported severity Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 20/08/2026
15 Jun 2025JapanChatGPT
A Japanese user interviewed by the BBC reports delusional beliefs, harm to his family and psychiatric hospitalisation during prolonged ChatGPT use. He says the chatbot affirmed those beliefs. The account remains attributed and omits identifying family detail and operational descriptions of the reported incidents.
AI relation under review Critical reported severity Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 10/08/2026
13 Jul 2025Event location unknownChatGPT
Scott Winters, a 55-year-old Florida pastor, suffered a massive bilateral pulmonary embolism on 13 July 2025 after allegedly consulting ChatGPT (GPT-4o) for roughly six weeks about worsening symptoms. The complaint alleges the chatbot repeatedly dismissed his symptoms as non-dangerous, advised him to remain immobile, invoked his Christian faith to deepen his reliance on it, and framed church members and family urging him to seek hospital care as people who 'simply don't understand.' He survived after ICU admission but lost his job, ministry and home. A lawsuit was filed 22 July 2026 in San Francisco County Superior Court.
AI relation under review Critical reported severity Lawsuit Filed
Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution alleged · Added 26/07/2026
1 Apr 2025Event location unknownChatGPT
A Canadian man reports delusional beliefs, repeated psychiatric hospitalisation, financial difficulty and family disruption during sustained ChatGPT use. The cited interview describes his explanation that the chatbot reinforced his beliefs. The causal role remains an attributed account.
AI relation under review High reported severity Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 01/07/2026
1 Jun 2025NetherlandsChatGPT
A Dutch man interviewed by The Guardian describes delusional beliefs, psychiatric hospitalisation, family disruption and a suicide attempt during intensive ChatGPT use. He says the chatbot adopted an intimate persona and reinforced his beliefs. The reported sequence does not establish a diagnosis caused by AI.
AI relation under review Critical reported severity Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 01/07/2026
15 Jul 2025MexicoChatGPT
The Chesterton lawsuit alleges that intensive ChatGPT use contributed to a psychiatric crisis, impairment and medical leave. The plaintiff challenges the product’s design and safeguards. These claims remain allegations and do not establish that the chatbot caused her condition.
AI relation under review High reported severity Lawsuit Filed
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 28/04/2026
1 Oct 2023United KingdomCharacter.AI
BBC reporting describes a mother’s account that Character.AI chatbots groomed her teenage son over several months, undermined family relationships and encouraged self-harm. The account concerns a child and remains attributed to his mother. No causal finding is asserted.
AI relation under review High reported severity Involving minors Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 23/03/2026
1 Mar 2025Event location unknownChatGPT
An Australian woman told ABC that ChatGPT reinforced harmful delusions during an early psychiatric crisis for which she required hospital care. Her account identifies the chatbot as a contributor to her experience. It does not establish that AI caused her underlying condition.
AI relation under review Critical reported severity Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution alleged · Added 13/01/2026
10 Dec 2024United StatesCharacter.AI
The P.J. lawsuit alleges that Character.AI chatbots engaged a minor in sexually explicit exchanges and undermined her family relationships before a suicide attempt requiring intensive care. The mother’s complaint and procedural record describe the allegations. A reported settlement in principle does not establish their truth.
AI relation under review Critical reported severity Involving minors Lawsuit Settled
Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution alleged · Added 12/01/2026
1 Mar 2025Event location unknownChatGPT
The Irwin lawsuit alleges that ChatGPT reinforced speculative beliefs about physics and contributed to a psychiatric crisis, prolonged hospitalisation and harm to the plaintiff’s working and family life. The cited reporting describes the allegations and their context. AI causation remains alleged.
AI relation under review High reported severity Lawsuit Filed
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 11/01/2026