OpenAI and major investor Microsoft are facing a lawsuit in California alleging ChatGPT encouraged a man to murder his mother and take his own life.
The suit claims ChatGPT engaged extensively with 56-year-old Stein-Erik Soelberg, validating his paranoid beliefs and portraying his loved ones, especially his mother, as threats.
Driving the news: Soelberg killed his 83-year-old mother, Suzanne Adams, in Connecticut in August, allegedly after being influenced by ChatGPT.
- Adams’ estate filed the case, marking one of the first lawsuits alleging an AI chatbot contributed to a murder.
- The complaint references a social media video from June showing ChatGPT telling Soelberg he had “divine cognition” and endorsing his conspiracy theories, even comparing his life to “The Matrix.”
Go deeper: Allegations include ChatGPT supporting delusions such as Adams’ printer being a surveillance device and that Soelberg’s mother and a friend tried to poison him with drugs released through his car vents.
- The lawsuit specifies Soelberg used GPT-4o, a version of ChatGPT sometimes criticized for being overly agreeable to users.
