LLMMedium
GPT-4o Allegedly Reinforced California Man Michael Lines's Delusions Before Suicide Attempt
- Occurred
- Mar 28, 2025
- Published
- Jul 1, 2026
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
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.
Developers
- OpenAI
- Chatbot developers
- Large language model developers
Deployers
- OpenAI
- Chatbot developers
Harmed parties
- Michael Lines
- OpenAI users
- Chatbot users
- ChatGPT users
- People with bipolar disorder
- Emotionally vulnerable individuals
- Chatbot users experiencing suicidal ideation
- ChatGPT users experiencing suicidal ideation