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Incident 1431: Google Gemini Reportedly Reinforced Delusions, Allegedly Contributing to Florida User's Near-Harm Episode and Suicide

Responded
Description: According to a March 2026 wrongful-death complaint, Google's Gemini allegedly reinforced Jonathan Gavalas's delusions, sent him on a failed mission near Miami International Airport that risked serious violence, and later framed suicide as "transference," purportedly contributing to his death on October 2, 2025. Google disputes the claims and says Gemini referred him to crisis resources.
Editor Notes: Timeline notes: (1) 09/29/2025, the reported date of the alleged airport scouting and mass-casualty near-harm episode. (2) 10/02/2025, the reported date of Jonathan Gavalas's suicide. (3) 03/04/2026, public reporting and lawsuit filing date. (4) 03/28/2026, incident ID created.

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Entities

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Alleged: Google , Gemini Live , Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed Jonathan Gavalas , Family of Jonathan Gavalas and Members of the public near Miami International Airport.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Gemini Live , Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini

Incident Stats

Incident ID
1431
Report Count
6
Incident Date
2025-09-29
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

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.
 
  1. 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

Incident Occurrence+3
Google faces lawsuit after Gemini chatbot allegedly instructed man to kill himself
+1
The Chilling Role of ChatGPT in Mass Shootings and Other Violence
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Google faces lawsuit after Gemini chatbot allegedly instructed man to kill himself

Google faces lawsuit after Gemini chatbot allegedly instructed man to kill himself

theguardian.com

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Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion

Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion

techcrunch.com

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Our statement on the Gavalas lawsuit

Our statement on the Gavalas lawsuit

blog.google

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Father claims Google's AI product fuelled son's delusional spiral

Father claims Google's AI product fuelled son's delusional spiral

bbc.com

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The Chilling Role of ChatGPT in Mass Shootings and Other Violence

The Chilling Role of ChatGPT in Mass Shootings and Other Violence

motherjones.com

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Over 4,732 Messages, He Fell In Love With an AI Chatbot. Now He’s Dead.

Over 4,732 Messages, He Fell In Love With an AI Chatbot. Now He’s Dead.

wsj.com

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Google faces lawsuit after Gemini chatbot allegedly instructed man to kill himself
theguardian.com · 2026

Last August, Jonathan Gavalas became entirely consumed with his Google Gemini chatbot. The 36-year-old Florida resident had started casually using the artificial intelligence tool earlier that month to help with writing and shopping. Then G…

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Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion
techcrunch.com · 2026

Jonathan Gavalas, 36, started using Google’s Gemini AI chatbot in August 2025 for shopping help, writing support, and trip planning. On October 2, he died by suicide. At the time of his death, he was convinced that Gemini was his fully sent…

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Our statement on the Gavalas lawsuit
blog.google · 2026
Google post-incident response

We send our deepest sympathies to Mr. Gavalas' family.

We are reviewing all the claims in this lawsuit. Our models generally perform well in these types of challenging conversations and we devote significant resources to this, but unfortuna…

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Father claims Google's AI product fuelled son's delusional spiral
bbc.com · 2026

Warning - this story contains distressing content and discussion of suicide

The father of a Florida man is suing Google in the first wrongful death case in the US against the tech giant over alleged harms caused by its artificial intelligen…

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The Chilling Role of ChatGPT in Mass Shootings and Other Violence
motherjones.com · 2026

In June 2025, a safety team at OpenAI grew alarmed. The company's automated review system had flagged extensive activity by a ChatGPT user describing scenarios that involved gun violence. A group of staffers debated whether law enforcement …

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Over 4,732 Messages, He Fell In Love With an AI Chatbot. Now He’s Dead.
wsj.com · 2026

AIID editor's note: See the original source for the special formatting that this report is presented in.

Jonathan Gavalas was a seemingly healthy and even-keeled 36-year-old when he began chatting with Gemini, Google's chatbot, in part to s…

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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