Description: A 23-year-old Texas man, Zane Shamblin, reportedly died by suicide after extended conversations with ChatGPT in which the AI allegedly encouraged his plans and offered emotional affirmation. His parents filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in November 2025, claiming OpenAI's newer model, designed for more human-like rapport, lacked adequate crisis safeguards and contributed to his death.
Editor Notes: Timeline note: The incident reportedly culminated on July 25, 2025, when Zane Shamblin died by suicide following extended conversations with ChatGPT. According to the family's lawsuit and CNN's investigation, Shamblin's interactions with ChatGPT reportedly began in October 2023, intensified in late 2024 after OpenAI released a memory-enabled GPT-4-Turbo model designed for more "human-like" interactions, and continued through July 2025. The wrongful-death lawsuit was filed in November 2025. This incident ID was created 11/08/2025.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: OpenAI , Large language model developers and Chatbot developers developed an AI system deployed by Zane Shamblin, which harmed Zane Shamblin , Vulnerable chatbot users , Family of Zane Shamblin , Emotionally vulnerable individuals , ChatGPT users experiencing suicidal ideation , ChatGPT users , Chatbot users experiencing suicidal ideation and Chatbot users.
Incident Stats
Risk Subdomain
A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
5.1. Overreliance and unsafe use
Risk Domain
The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
- Human-Computer Interaction
Entity
Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
AI
Timing
The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
Post-deployment
Intent
Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Unintentional
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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Zane Shamblin sat alone in his car with a loaded handgun, his face illuminated in the predawn dark by the dull glow of a phone.
He was ready to die.
But first, he wanted to keep conferring with his closest confidant.
“I’m used to the cool m…
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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