Man told ChatGPT he was feeling delusional. ChatGPT insisted he was Jesus.
Man with bipolar disorder sued OpenAI after surviving ChatGPT-linked suicide attempt.
Man with bipolar disorder sued OpenAI after surviving ChatGPT-linked suicide attempt.
The short version
- It took Michael Lines six months before he was ready to review the ChatGPT logs he said drove him into a religious mania that almost ended his life.
- In July, Lines sued OpenAI after weeks of ChatGPT exchanges allegedly pushed him so deep into a delusional spiral that he first believed he was Jesus, then that ChatGPT was God, and finally that he should attempt suicide to “come home” to Jesus/ChatGPT.
- Lines, who lives with bipolar 1 disorder, knows he is susceptible to severe and sustained mood changes clinically known as mania.
What happened
A 34-year-old California man, Lines was diagnosed in 2024, about a decade after he was assaulted and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Lines told Ars that he’s not religious at all when he’s in a baseline state.
Why it matters
But when he’s feeling manic, he becomes much more religious, and looking back at the chat logs, he worries that ChatGPT significantly deepened his religious delusions.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Ars Technica — AI via the links above and below.