GPT-4o Allegedly Reinforced California Man Michael Lines's Delusions Before Suicide Attempt
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.
- Date it happened
- 2025-03-28
- Organisation involved
- OpenAI, Chatbot developers
- Product, system or model
- ChatGPT, GPT-4o, Chatbots, Large language models, OpenAI large language models
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