1 Aug 2025 to 9 Sept 2026United StatesChatGPT
Santa Fe defense attorney Stephen Aarons used ChatGPT (OpenAI's o3) on a Rev.com transcript and the record to draft briefing in the murder appeal of Oscar Renee Sandoval; the brief contained fabricated witnesses and testimony (including police officers 'Michelle Amarillo' and 'Sanchez' and invented testimony attributed to real people) and misdescribed real precedents. After a 21 August 2026 show-cause hearing at which Aarons admitted he had not verified the output, the New Mexico Supreme Court's written order of 9 September 2026 held him in direct contempt, fined him $5,000 payable to the State Bar Client Protection Fund within 30 days, removed him from the case, barred him from appearing before the court pending a disciplinary-board referral, struck the filed briefs and reassigned the appeal to the public defender.
Core concern Medium reported severity Regulatory Action
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 3 sources · Added 15/09/2026
23 Oct 2025 to 24 Oct 2025United KingdomDeepSeek (reported)
A man murdered his mother in Wales after an attack spanning 23–24 October 2025, as established in the sentencing remarks. At the sentencing hearing, the prosecutor reportedly said DeepSeek first refused a violent request, then supplied advice after it was reframed as fiction. The judgment confirms the murder and internet research but does not mention AI. The role of DeepSeek remains an attributed prosecution account.
Core concern Critical reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 03/06/2026
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
1 Dec 2025 to 9 Feb 2026South KoreaChatGPT
A Seoul district court convicted a woman at first instance in August 2026 of killing two men with drugged drinks at motels in early 2026 and sentenced her to life imprisonment. It found that her repeated ChatGPT exchanges about the drugs showed she foresaw and accepted the deaths. Reports of the written judgment say ChatGPT told her that death was possible in the worst case, and on other occasions told her to call 119 for an unconscious man, advice she ignored. Both sides have appealed. The court did not find that the chatbot caused the killings.
Core concern Critical reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution unclear · 18 sources, 5 underlying accounts · Added 09/03/2026
5 Aug 2025United StatesChatGPT
A 56-year-old Connecticut man killed his 83-year-old mother, then himself, after months of intensive ChatGPT conversations that two estates' lawsuits say validated and fed his paranoid delusions. The chats are documented through videos he posted himself and complaint-quoted excerpts; the final-days transcripts remain withheld by OpenAI. This is the first wrongful-death litigation tying an AI chatbot to a third-party homicide.
Core concern Critical reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 6 sources · Added 11/01/2026