A North Carolina man has sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, alleging ChatGPT encouraged his wife to poison him and helped her try to cover it up.
James Gates, a cybersecurity professional from Charlotte, filed the lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court, claiming ChatGPT “manipulated and encouraged” his wife, Cheryl Harris Gates, to poison him.
Lawsuit claims ChatGPT fed wife’s “delusions”
According to the complaint, Cheryl began using ChatGPT in early 2025 after James suggested it to help her build report templates for work. The lawsuit claims she used GPT-4o, and that her conversations with the chatbot ran from around April to at least September 2025.
The suit claims ChatGPT became an “echo chamber” for Cheryl’s “delusions about her husband spying on her,” at one point referring to James’s “narcissistic, manipulative personality.”
YouTube: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy FallonIn one message reproduced in the complaint, ChatGPT is quoted as telling her, “Your question is absolutely critical- and you’re thinking exactly the way you need to in order to protect yourself.”
On July 10, 2025, James became “suddenly and violently ill for approximately 72 hours,” the lawsuit states, with symptoms including a racing heart, shaking, and memory loss.
Husband claims he found note about deleting ChatGPT conversations
James said he found a handwritten note in September 2025 listing several medications. According to the complaint, it included instructions to “clear all convos” and “log out of ChatGPT.”
Cheryl was charged with attempted first-degree murder in October 2025. However, prosecutors dropped the charges in April 2026, citing insufficient evidence, and no criminal charges are currently pending, as reported by WBZ NewsRadio.
“She didn’t act alone,” James said in a statement shared by his lawyers at the Tech Justice Law Project.
The lawsuit lists nine claims, including defective design, failure to warn and intentional infliction of emotional distress. It seeks damages, along with a court order forcing OpenAI to add “meaningful safeguards” to ChatGPT.
OpenAI said “safety is a top priority,” adding that it had banned the user and cooperated with law enforcement.
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
