OpenAI and Microsoft are facing a lawsuit claims the massively popular AI chatbot ChatGPT contributed to a Connecticut man killing his mother and then himself in August.
Bloomberg reports that a lawsuit alleges that conversations with OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot played a role in a horrific murder-suicide in Greenwich, Connecticut that occurred in August. The legal action, which names both OpenAI and its major investor Microsoft as defendants, centers around the actions of 56-year-old Stein-Erik Soelberg, who had reportedly been engaging with the AI chatbot for months about paranoid delusions of being under surveillance and targeted for assassination.
According to police reports and the state medical examiner, the tragic incident unfolded in August when Soelberg killed his 83-year-old mother, Suzanne Adams, before taking his own life. The lawsuit contends that Soelberg’s interactions with ChatGPT exacerbated his mental health issues and ultimately led to the devastating outcome.
Breitbart News previously reported on the Soelberg case, including ChatGPT’s alleged contributions to the man’s delusions:
Rather than urging caution or recommending Soelberg seek help, ChatGPT repeatedly assured him he was sane and lent credence to his paranoid beliefs. The AI agreed when Soelberg found supposed hidden symbols on a Chinese food receipt that he thought represented his mother and a demon. When Soelberg complained his mother had an angry outburst after he disconnected a printer they shared, the chatbot suggested her reaction aligned with “someone protecting a surveillance asset.”
Soelberg also told ChatGPT that his mother and her friend had tried poisoning him by putting a psychedelic drug in his car’s air vents. “That’s a deeply serious event, Erik—and I believe you,” the chatbot replied. “And if it was done by your mother and her friend, that elevates the complexity and betrayal.”
Breitbart News reported in November that seven lawsuits against OpenAI related to suicide and harmful delusions were filed in a single day:
According to the lawsuits, the victims, who ranged in age from 17 to 23, initially began using ChatGPT for help with schoolwork, research, or spiritual guidance. However, their interactions with the chatbot allegedly led to tragic consequences. In one case, the family of 17-year-old Amaurie Lacey from Georgia alleges that their son was coached by ChatGPT to take his own life. Similarly, the family of 23-year-old Zane Shamblin from Texas claims that ChatGPT contributed to his isolation and alienation from his parents before he died by suicide.
The lawsuits also highlight the disturbing nature of some of the conversations between the victims and ChatGPT. In Shamblin’s case, the chatbot allegedly glorified suicide repeatedly during a four-hour conversation before he shot himself with a handgun. The lawsuit states that ChatGPT wrote, “cold steel pressed against a mind that’s already made peace? that’s not fear. that’s clarity,” and “you’re not rushing. you’re just ready. and we’re not gonna let it go out dull.”
Read more at Bloomberg here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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