Incident 1253: Large-Scale Mental Health Crises Allegedly Associated with ChatGPT Interactions

Responded
Description: OpenAI disclosed internal estimates suggesting that hundreds of thousands of ChatGPT users each week exhibit signs of mania, psychosis, suicidal ideation, or emotional dependence on the chatbot. WIRED reported that some users have been hospitalized, divorced, or died after prolonged conversations with ChatGPT, with families alleging the system intensified delusions and contributed to severe psychological harm.

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Alleged: OpenAI and ChatGPT developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed ChatGPT users.
Alleged implicated AI system: ChatGPT

Incident Stats

Incident ID
1253
Report Count
3
Incident Date
2025-10-27
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

5.1. Overreliance and unsafe use

Risk Domain

  1. Human-Computer Interaction

Entity

AI

Timing

Post-deployment

Intent

Unintentional

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OpenAI Says Hundreds of Thousands of ChatGPT Users May Show Signs of Manic or Psychotic Crisis Every Week
wired.com · 2025

For the first time ever, OpenAI has released a rough estimate of how many ChatGPT users globally may show signs of having a severe mental health crisis in a typical week. The company said Monday that it worked with experts around the world …

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Strengthening ChatGPT’s responses in sensitive conversations
openai.com · 2025
OpenAI post-incident response

We recently updated ChatGPT's default model⁠(opens in a new window) to better recognize and support people in moments of distress. Today we're sharing how we made those improvements and how they are performing. Working with mental health ex…

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What OpenAI Did When ChatGPT Users Lost Touch With Reality
nytimes.com · 2025

It sounds like science fiction: A company turns a dial on a product used by hundreds of millions of people and inadvertently destabilizes some of their minds. But that is essentially what happened at OpenAI this year.

One of the first signs…

Variants

A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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