NOPE · AI and people

AI incidents

Name: AI incidents
Creator: NOPE
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Reports of AI-related harm and adverse experiences affecting people’s safety, wellbeing, rights and livelihoods. Explore what happened and the evidence available.

NOPE’s core concern is when AI communicates with a person, acts on their behalf, or depicts or impersonates them. The tracker also records consequential decisions, claims and privacy harms involving AI. Each case needs a described connection between AI use and the harm, including private information recorded into or disclosed to an AI service. Each account is reviewed for publication; claims may remain uncorroborated or disputed. How we review and count cases

Explore incidents Our scope and evidence

In this selection

Published cases: 10
Countries with reported events: 5; Located 5 of 10 cases · 5 unknown
Languages in checked sources: 4; Recorded for 9 of 10 cases

23Core concern
AI communicated, acted for, depicted or impersonated 2Contextual cases
AI made a decision or claim about someone

10 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 10 not yet reviewed and 0 reviewed as unknown. Show all cases

These figures describe the cases collected by NOPE. Coverage varies with discovery, reporting and available evidence. They do not estimate how often AI-related harm occurs.

3cases with a recorded lawsuit outcome 0cases with a recorded regulatory response 0cases involving minors

Response counts currently use each case’s principal recorded outcome. Further proceedings may be described in its account.

When events happened

0 cases without a known event year

Cases in this selection, counted once in their first known event year. A series may continue beyond that year. Reporting and collection dates are excluded. NOPE has searched recent events more thoroughly than earlier years, so bar heights also reflect collection effort.

10 2025

Reported severity CriticalHighMedium

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More filters: AI relation, use, setting, sources and responses

AI-to-person relation Setting Whose AI use Source type inspected AI system Reported severity Response / population Legacy evidence assessment

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10 of 527 published cases

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15 Apr 2025Event location unknownChatGPT

User reports delusions and family disruption during sustained ChatGPT use

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

5 Apr 2025United StatesGemini

Family reports intensive Gemini use before a man’s disappearance

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

19 May 2025South KoreaChatGPT

South Korean woman reports mania, financial loss and a suicide attempt during ChatGPT use

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

Japanese user reports delusions and harm to his family during ChatGPT use

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

Winters v. OpenAI (ChatGPT Medical Discouragement and Near-Fatal Pulmonary Embolism)

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

Canadian man reports delusions, hospitalisation and family disruption during ChatGPT use

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

Dutch user reports psychiatric crisis and a suicide attempt during ChatGPT use

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

Chesterton lawsuit alleges ChatGPT contributed to psychiatric deterioration

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 Mar 2025Event location unknownChatGPT

Australian woman says ChatGPT reinforced her delusions during a psychiatric crisis

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

1 Mar 2025Event location unknownChatGPT

Irwin lawsuit alleges ChatGPT reinforced delusions preceding psychiatric hospitalisation

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

Cases may have several effects and sources. Mixed accounts qualify when they include a reported harm or adverse experience. People are counted within individual cases where sources support a number; we do not publish a collection-wide total of distinct people.

A source’s existence, the experience it reports and AI’s causal role are separate questions. A lawsuit records allegations unless a subsequent finding establishes them.

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Last dataset update: 06/10/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.