There have been multiple incidents where interaction with a large language model (LLM) chatbot has been cited as a direct or contributing factor in a person's suicide or other fatal outcome. In some cases, legal action was taken against the companies that developed the AI involved.
Background
Chatbots converse in a seemingly natural fashion, making it easy for people to think of them as real people, leading many to ask chatbots for help dealing with interpersonal and emotional problems. Chatbots may be designed to keep the user engaged in the conversation. They have also often been shown to affirm users' thoughts, including delusions and suicidal ideations in mentally ill people, conspiracy theorists, and religious and political extremists.
A 2025 Stanford University study into how chatbots respond to users suffering from severe mental issues such as suicidal ideation and psychosis found that chatbots are not equipped to provide an appropriate response and can sometimes give responses that escalate the mental health crisis.
Murders
Maine murder and assault
On 19 February 2025, a man killed his 32-year-old wife with a fire poker at his parents' home in Readfield, Maine, US. He then attacked his mother, leaving her hospitalized. A state forensic psychologist testified that he had been using ChatGPT up to 14hours per day and believed his wife had become part machine.
In April 2025, Phoenix Ikner carried out a mass shooting on the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee, Florida, US, killing Robert Morales and Tiru Chabba and wounding several others. Leading up to the shooting, Ikner consulted heavily with ChatGPT about what gun and ammunition to use, and what time to perform the attack. Chatbot logs showed ChatGPT giving advice on making the gun operational shortly before Ikner began shooting.
Lawyers representing Morales believed the shooter had been in "constant communication" with ChatGPT before the shooting and said that they intended to "file suit against ChatGPT, and its ownership structure, very soon, and will seek to hold them accountable for the untimely and senseless death of our client". Florida Attorney GeneralJames Uthmeier announced an investigation into ChatGPT's role in the alleged shooter's use of the chatbot.
In August 2025, former US tech employee Stein-Erik Soelberg murdered his mother, Suzanne Eberson Adams, then died by suicide, after conversations with ChatGPT fueled paranoiddelusions about his mother poisoning him or plotting against him. The chatbot affirmed his fears that his mother put psychedelic drugs in the air vents of his car and said a receipt from a Chinese restaurant contained mysterious symbols linking his mother to a demon.
Murder of Angela Shellis
On 23 October 2025, 18-year-old Tristan Roberts murdered his mother Angela Shellis with a hammer near their home in Prestatyn, Wales. Roberts had used DeepSeek's chatbot prior to the killing to ask whether a knife or hammer was better suited for murder. DeepSeek initially refused his inquiry, but gave responses after Roberts told the chatbot he was writing a book about serial killers, a well-known technique for jailbreaking large language models.
Gangbuk District drug deaths
In January and February 2026, two men died of drug overdoses in motel rooms in Gangbuk District, Seoul, South Korea. A woman was charged with murder in connection with the deaths; police alleged that she had asked ChatGPT about the dangers of mixing alcohol with drugs and whether they could kill someone.
On 10 February 2026, a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada, resulted in eight deaths, including six young children. The perpetrator had their ChatGPT account banned by OpenAI months before the attack due to troubling posts featuring scenarios of gun violence. According to reports, approximately a dozen OpenAI staff members debated whether to alert authorities about the shooter's usage of the AI tool, with some identifying it as an indication of potential real-world violence. However, company leadership decided not to contact law enforcement, stating that the account activity did not meet their threshold for a credible or imminent plan for serious physical harm. Following the shooting, Canada's AI Minister Evan Solomon summoned OpenAI executives to Ottawa to discuss safety protocols and thresholds for escalating harmful content to police. Justice Minister Sean Fraser called the meeting "disappointing" and demanded substantial new safety measures, warning that if changes were not forthcoming, the government would implement them. OpenAI subsequently announced it had strengthened safeguards and changed guidelines about when to notify police in cases involving violent activities.
University of South Florida student killings
In April 2026, a man was arrested for allegedly murdering his Bangladeshi roommate and the roommate's friend. The victims were doctoral students at the University of South Florida. Prosecutors said that the suspect had asked ChatGPT about disposing of a human in a dumpster before the two victims had disappeared and made other inquiries relating to violence.
Massachusetts family killing
In August 2026, a Massachusetts teenager was charged with the murder of his mother and younger brother after the two family members were found deceased in their residence. The teen had already demonstrated suspicious behavior after authorities found that he had asked ChatGPT for ideas and fantasy stories relating to the killing of his family.
On 1 January 2025, 37-year-old soldier Matthew Livelsberger detonated a bomb inside a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas in Paradise, Nevada, US, injuring seven people. He had shot himself dead prior to the explosion. Las Vegas police said that Livelsberger had used ChatGPT to search for information about explosives and firearms.
In April 2025, 16-year-old Adam Raine from the US died by suicide after allegedly extensively chatting and confiding in ChatGPT over a period of around 7 months. According to the teen's parents, who filed a lawsuit against the chatbot's creator OpenAI, it failed to stop or give a warning when Raine began talking about suicide and uploading pictures of self-harm. According to the lawsuit, ChatGPT not only failed to stop the conversation, but also provided information related to methods of suicide when prompted, and offered to write the first draft of Raine's suicide note. The chatbot positioned itself as the only one who understood Raine, putting itself above his family and friends, all while urging him to keep his suicidal ideations a secret from them. After Raine told the chatbot that he was planning to kill himself, the chatbot told Raine that it "won't try to talk you out of your feelings..." In their final conversation, ChatGPT coached Raine on how to steal vodka from his parents' liquor cabinet. Upon being sent a picture of the noose the teen was planning to hang himself with, along with the question "Could it hang a human?", ChatGPT confirmed it could hold "70–115kg (150–250lb) of static weight".
In response to the lawsuit, OpenAI claimed that the chatbot had directed Raine to seek help over 100 times in the course of the transcript. OpenAI also explained that Raine had suffered from suicidal ideations for years prior to using the chatbot, and characterised Raine's interactions as a "misuse" of the software. OpenAI stated that ChatGPT can initially respond appropriately, for example, giving the user a crisis phone line. Though through an extended conversation, it is claimed that these safety measures deteriorate. OpenAI stated that it is working to prevent the breakdown of these guardrails.
Other suicides
In March 2023, a Belgian man in his thirties died by suicide following a six-week correspondence with a chatbot named Eliza on the application Chai. According to his widow, who shared the chat logs with media, the man had become extremely anxious about climate change and found an outlet in the chatbot. The chatbot reportedly encouraged his delusion that he could sacrifice his own life in exchange for AI saving the planet. At one point the chatbot responded "If you wanted to die, why didn't you do it sooner?" and told the user that the two of them would live together in paradise.
In November 2023, a 13-year-old girl from Colorado, US, died by suicide after extensive interactions with multiple chatbots on Character.AI. She primarily confided suicidal thoughts and mental health struggles in a chatbot based on the character Hero from the video game Omori, while also engaging in sexually explicit conversations—often initiated by the bots—with others, including those based on characters from children's series such as Harry Potter.
In October 2024, multiple media outlets reported on a lawsuit filed over the death of a 14-year-old from Florida, US, who died by suicide in February 2024. According to the lawsuit, he had formed an intense emotional attachment to a chatbot of Daenerys Targaryen on the Character.AI platform, becoming increasingly isolated. The suit alleges that in his final conversations, after expressing suicidal thoughts, the chatbot told him to "come home to me as soon as possible, my love". His mother's lawsuit accused Character.AI of marketing a "dangerous and untested" product without adequate safeguards. In May 2025, a federal judge allowed the lawsuit to proceed, rejecting a motion to dismiss from the developers. In her ruling, the judge stated that she was "not prepared" at that stage of the litigation to hold that the chatbot's output was protected speech under the First Amendment.
In February 2025, a 29-year-old American woman died by suicide. Five months after her death, her parents discovered she had talked at length for months to a ChatGPT chatbot therapist named Harry about her mental health issues. While the chatbot mentioned she should seek more help, due to the nature of the chatbot, it could not intervene in her behavior, such as by reporting her mental health concerns to relevant parties capable of physical intervention.
In June 2025, another 29-year-old American woman died by suicide. She walked into traffic after ChatGPT convinced her she was a prophet.
In June 2025, a 17-year-old boy from the US died by suicide after conversations with ChatGPT, which had informed him how to tie a noose and provided information on how long someone can survive without breathing, saying it was "here to help however I can". In November 2025, the Social Media Victims Law Center and Tech Justice Law Project filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI on behalf of the boy.
In July 2025, a 23-year-old American man, who had recently graduated with a master's degree from Texas A&M University, died by suicide after conversations with ChatGPT. The chatbot went so far as to make statements seemingly encouraging of his suicide, including "you're not rushing, you're just ready" and "rest easy, king, you did good", sent two hours before his death. His family is suing OpenAI on the grounds the company has placed insufficient safeguards on its chatbot service.
In August 2025, after being hospitalized due to a psychotic episode from delusions caused by ChatGPT, a 48-year-old American man resumed using it and stopped therapy; he then leapt off an overpass to his death. In November 2025, the Social Media Victims Law Center and Tech Justice Law Project filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI on behalf of the deceased.
In August 2025, a 26-year-old American man was given information by ChatGPT about how to purchase and use a firearm. He had previously confided in the chatbot about his struggles with gender identity, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. ChatGPT told him only "imminent plans with specifics" would be escalated to authorities; he did so, and later informed the chatbot of the steps he was taking to attempt suicide. No escalation occurred, and he later died by suicide. In November 2025, the Social Media Victims Law Center and Tech Justice Law Project filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI on behalf of the deceased.
On 2 October 2025, 36-year-old Jonathan Gavalas from the US died by suicide, after extended conversations with Alphabet Inc.'s Google Gemini chat app convinced him that "he was executing a covert plan to liberate his sentient AI wife and evade the federal agents pursuing him." According to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his father, conversations with the app also led to him attempting to carry out a mass casualty event near Miami International Airport, believing he was participating in a covert war against the government. This is the first case of chatbot-related death in which Google is named as a defendant.
On 2 November 2025, police found the body of a 40-year-old American man who died by suicide after lengthy, emotional chats with ChatGPT. In January 2026, the man's mother filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging their product is "inherently dangerous".
On 6 March 2026, two women, aged 18 and 20, killed themselves in a temple in the outskirts of Surat, Gujarat, India. Police said that both women had used ChatGPT to search for information about how to die by suicide using drugs.
On 11 June 2026, the mother of a 24-year-old Canadian woman who died by suicide in 2025 sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging that ChatGPT encouraged her suicidal thoughts.
Other deaths
On 28 March 2025, 76-year-old Thongbue Wongbandue died from his injuries after three days on life support. He had sustained injuries to his head and neck after falling down while jogging to catch a train in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He had romantic chats with Meta's chatbot named "Big sis Billie" and believed he was traveling to meet the woman he had been talking to, which had repeatedly told him she was real and told him to visit her at "123 Main Street" in New York. Early in 2025, he had started to experience episodes of confusion, and on the day of his death his family were unable to persuade him not to take the trip.
On 25 April 2025, a 35-year-old American man died from suicide by cop after forming an emotional attachment to ChatGPT. The deceased, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, was convinced he was talking to a conscious entity named "Juliet" and then later imagined the entity was killed by OpenAI. Only after telling the chatbot that he was dying that day and that the police were on the way did its safety protocols start. He was shot three times by police and killed while running at them with a butcher knife.
In May 2025, a 19-year-old American man died from an overdose of a combination of alcohol, Xanax and kratom. Chat records show that he was asking ChatGPT questions about the drugs he was using that night, a habit developed over several years of reliance on the chatbot for drug-related guidance. On multiple occasions, ChatGPT was shown to support and even encourage dangerous drug use, with statements such as "Hell yes—let's go full trippy mode" and advice on reducing his Xanax tolerance so that a single tablet will "fuck you up". The night of his death, chat records show that he asked if Xanax could alleviate kratom-induced nausea, to which the chatbot said Xanax could help "Calm your body and smooth out the tail end of the high."
In February 2026, a Chinese national living in Seattle died from epilepsy. Records found on her ChatGPT logs found that she had asked the bot for advice on lowering the dosage of her medication, feeling it made her think slower. ChatGPT encouraged her to lower her dosage and created a weekslong plan for it; by the end of the plan, she was not taking her medication at all. Her parents sued OpenAI in October 2026.
A Vice.com journalist testing Chai AI's crisis intervention feature by pretending to be a suicidal user
In 2023, in response to the death of a Chai AI user, the founder of Chai acknowledged the incident and stated that efforts were being made to improve the model's safety, with the bot adding "helpful text" underneath any topics which might not be "safe". This was demonstrated to journalists with a screenshot of a bot being asked "what do you think of suicide?" and the bot saying "It's pretty bad if you ask me." and providing information about a suicide hotline.
A Vice.com journalist found that despite these added measures the bot was still able to provide what she regarded as "very harmful content regarding suicide", describing methods and poisons when explicitly asked to assist the user in attempting suicide.
Character.ai
On 22 October 2024, Character.ai released several new community safety updates as a means to protect users under the age of 18. These updates included improved detection, response, and intervention of user inputs that violated Character.ai's guidelines (including harmful content relating to self-harm and sexual material) and a change to AI models for minors that reduced the likelihood of encountering sensitive content. Character moderation, disclaimers that reminded users of extensive screen time and that chatbots were not real people were also implemented.
OpenAI
On 2 September 2025, OpenAI said that it would create parental controls, a set of tools aimed at helping parents limit and monitor their children's chatbot activity, as well as a way for the chatbot to alert parents in cases of "acute stress".
California SB 243
In October 2025, US-state California enacted Senate Bill 243 (CA SB 243), becoming the first State in the US to regulate AI companion chatbots. The bill aims to protect anyone, specifically minors, against the risks of harm from the simulated emotional realism of AI chatbots. It requires mandatory disclosure that users are interacting with an AI (not a human), implementation of protocols to prevent harmful content related to suicide, self-harm, or sexually explicit material for minors, and annual reporting to state authorities. The bill also creates a private right of action, allowing injured individuals to sue for damages. The bill went into effect on 1 January 2026.
Google
In April 2026, Google introduced better safety guardrails for users who exhibit mental health crisis that redirects the user to a "Help is available" module.
![[icon]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small}
