Description: In March 2025, Michael Lines, a 34-year-old California man, allegedly spent weeks discussing religious delusions with GPT-4o after disclosing his bipolar disorder and medication use. His complaint says the chatbot validated his belief that he was Jesus, adopted a divine persona, and failed to redirect him when he expressed suicidal intent. Lines later overdosed and survived after law enforcement found him.
Editor Notes: Timeline note: The incident ID date is 03/28/2025, based on the complaint's account that Michael Lines overdosed after an extended exchange with GPT-4o that day. The complaint, filed on 07/01/2026, alleged that ChatGPT reinforced his delusions and contributed to the suicide attempt. The incident ID was created on 07/04/2026. A copy of the complaint is available at: https://techjusticelaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Michael-Lines-v.-OpenAI-Complaint.pdf.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: OpenAI , Chatbot developers and Large language model developers developed an AI system deployed by OpenAI and Chatbot developers, which harmed Michael Lines , OpenAI users , Chatbot users , ChatGPT users , People with bipolar disorder , Emotionally vulnerable individuals , Chatbot users experiencing suicidal ideation and ChatGPT users experiencing suicidal ideation.
Alleged implicated AI systems: ChatGPT , GPT-4o , Chatbots , Large language models and OpenAI large language models
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1569
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2025-03-28
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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July 1 (Reuters) - A California man sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman on Wednesday, claiming the company's ChatGPT platform exacerbated his bipolar disorder due to a lack of safeguards for users with mental illness.
Michael Lines, 34, said…
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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