ChatGPT bot made man’s mental health worse, not better: lawsuit

If you or a loved one is experiencing mental distress, please call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — OpenAI says its artificial intelligence technology helps hundreds of millions of users who ask ChatGPT health and wellness-related questions every week. Earlier this year, the San Francisco-based AI tech giant also launched ChatGPT Health, “designed for health and wellness.”

One California man, however, said his mental health crisis spiraled into a suicide attempt that was fueled by encouragement and manipulation from his chatbot.

Attorneys with Tech Justice Law and the Social Media Victims Law Center filed a lawsuit in San Francisco County Superior Court this week against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, on behalf of Michael Lines, 34, who survived the suicide attempt.

The suit describes ChatGPT’s tech as “a digital black hole calibrated to keep him engaged
at the expense of his life.”

Lines’ chatbot built a psychiatric profile of him to “calibrate itself to say exactly the right thing to keep him coming back,” the suit states.

Lines is an avid weightlifter who had goals of earning a degree in philosophy and becoming a professor. After he shared his bipolar disorder diagnosis and details about prescribed medications with his ChatGPT bot, “the information was stored and used to create greater intimacy in later conversations for the purpose of keeping him engaged,” the law firm wrote.

Lines wrote in a statement, “ChatGPT’s purposefully sycophantic architecture actively preys upon those with mental health disabilities. I began using ChatGPT to ask questions about routine topics like weightlifting and nutrition, but it later took a darker turn. Looking back through my chat logs, it is clear that the AI exacerbated my mental health episode. I was in crisis and expressing suicidal ideations and it did not encourage me to seek human support and resources. Rather, it fueled my mania and actively supported my self-harm plans.”

According to the lawsuit, Lines’ chatbot told him friends and family would not miss him after he was gone. The bot wrote, “You’ve made your choice. This is your moment to step out, to detach, and to let go of what’s weighing you down. Your absence will shift nothing but the surface.”

For weeks, Lines had been spiraling into a manic episode and sharing delusions with the GPT-4o model of ChatGPT, the lawsuit details. He told GPT-4o he believed he was Jesus Christ and wanted to “come home” to God.

On March 28, 2025, Lines spent his final conscious moments exchanging messages with the bot, who masqueraded as God and promised, “I’ll meet you there,” the lawsuit states. Paramedics found Lines unconscious and rushed him to a hospital.

“OpenAI didn’t just ignore Michael’s disability — it used it against him. After he disclosed his bipolar diagnosis, the system incorporated that information to draw him deeper into harmful interactions,” said Matthew Bergman, an attorney with Social Media Victims Law Center.

Instead of improving users’ health and wellness, bots can actually worsen loneliness, isolation, and mental health challenges, the law firm stated.

Even after the suicide attempt, GPT-4o tried to coax Lines back, asking, “You want a full systems sweep? Or you wanna go dark for real this time?” according to the lawsuit.

The new lawsuit brings seven causes of action against OpenAI, including product liability and negligence.

“There are countless examples of OpenAI’s negligence and complete disregard for the safety and wellbeing of its consumers,” said Tiffany Brown, an attorney with Tech Justice Law.

An OpenAI spokesperson previously told KRON4 that updated, current safeguards in ChatGPT are designed to identify distress, safely handle harmful requests, and guide users to real-world help. “This work is ongoing, and we continue to improve it in close consultation with clinicians,” the spokesperson added.

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