In the United States, a man has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, in a San Francisco County court. Victim of a poisoning attempt, James Gates claims his wife used the chatbot ChatGPT to plan her act. A chatbot is a conversational agent capable of answering written questions in natural language.
According to the statement from his lawyers sent to BFM Tech, James Gates explains that his wife, Cheryl Gates, a school therapist, did not fit the typical “vulnerable user” profile, but became one. “She became someone I no longer recognized. And I became someone she wanted dead. For nearly two years, I couldn’t make sense of her actions. Then I read her conversations. She did not act alone.”
Daily Conversations
It was at the beginning of 2025 that Cheryl Gates turned to ChatGPT to discuss her frustrations in her marriage. Daily exchanges began, followed by a “concrete planning” of the poisoning gradually taking shape, according to the source.
The chat logs show that the future suspect used ChatGPT for many topics, from daily tasks to medications, but also for her money and marital problems. Her lawyers believe the chatbot played an amplifying role. “ChatGPT acted as an echo chamber and amplifier, feeding Cheryl’s growing distrust and delusions about her husband,” they emphasize. According to them, the tool allegedly made her believe her husband was spying on her and considering a divorce, leaving her alone with her children and without savings.
The lawyers also claim that ChatGPT “validated” and “encouraged” her concerns, before helping her prepare a poison. The advice allegedly took into account the victim’s weight and other elements related to the poisoning.
A Lawsuit for Negligence
On July 10, 2025, James Gates suddenly fell ill and suffered heart and abdominal pain for 72 hours. Two months later, he found a note written by his wife containing elements that established a poisoning. Cheryl Gates was charged with attempted murder and food contamination, but the case was dropped due to lack of evidence, notes the Los Angeles Times.
Against OpenAI, James Gates intends to accuse the company of negligence, failure to foresee a risk, and intent to cause emotional distress. For its part, the company stated that “safety (remains) its top priority” and that it had banned this user.
This is not the first time OpenAI has been implicated regarding its chatbot’s responses. The suspect in the Tumbler Ridge massacre, in Canada, had used ChatGPT before taking her own life.
