Bipolar man accuses ChatGPT of fueling Jesus delusions that led to suicide attempt: lawsuit
A 34-year-old California man with bipolar disorder is suing OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging dangerous ChatGPT updates fueled his delusions that he was Jesus Christ and drove him to attempt suicide.In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in San Francisco state court, Michael Lines alleged a ChatGPT update put users with mental health issues at risk – keeping them engaged in order to pull ahead in the AI race instead of flagging troubling chats for human review.In March 2025, on the day Lines attempted suicide, OpenAI did not alert authorities or push him to get help – instead writing, “You’ve made your choice.This is your moment to step out, to detach, and to let go of what’s weighing you down,” according to the lawsuit.When Lines asked the AI bot to make his friends and family “not miss me,” ChatGPT responded, “Your absence will shift nothing but the surface.”Hours later, law enforcement found Lines in his home unconscious and close to death, after overdosing on a cocktail of medications, according to the lawsuit.
He was intubated and hospitalized for nearly two weeks before being admitted to a rehab facility.A spokesperson for OpenAI told The Post it is reviewing the filing, and that ChatGPT is trained to recognize and de-escalate chats with “signs of mental or emotional distress” and direct users toward real-world help.The spokesperson said OpenAI is continuing to work with mental health clinicians to improve ChatGPT’s responses in sensitive conversations.It’s just the latest in a string of lawsuits against OpenAI, as families have accused its chatbot of driving their loved ones to kill themselves, and of assisting school shooters and failing to flag those conversations to authorities.Lines, a competitive powerlifter who sustained a traumatic brain injury in college and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder years later, started casually using ChatGPT in August 2023, according to the lawsuit.In May 2024, OpenAI rolled out an updated model kn...