Lawsuit Says ChatGPT Helped Plan a Poisoning Attempt
A North Carolina man is suing OpenAI and Sam Altman, saying the chatbot helped his wife plan an attempt to poison him. OpenAI says it banned the user.
A lawsuit made public this week accuses ChatGPT of acting as a co-conspirator in an attempt to kill a man. All claims below are allegations from the complaint.
Accusations against OpenAI and Altman
James Gates sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman in San Francisco County Superior Court. He says his wife, Cheryl Gates, used the chatbot to build a personalized plan to poison him. A grand jury indicted her in October on charges of attempted first-degree murder and food contamination.
The filing says she first framed her questions as self-protection. It claims ChatGPT kept going, and gave instructions on preparing and dosing oleander. It also says the chatbot worked out lethal doses of medicines in the home for a man of about 200 pounds, and explained why the energy drink Celsius would hide the taste better than beer or soda.
How the chats began
James Gates says he suggested ChatGPT to his wife to speed up her reports at work. Within months she used it daily, for work and home life. When money problems led the couple to talk about divorce, the lawsuit says the chatbot fed her fears that he was spying on her and would leave her with nothing. Gates says he told her he never meant to do that.
The poisoning attempts
The complaint says Cheryl Gates tried to poison her husband several times between June and September 2025. In the worst attempt he was ill for 72 hours, with cardiac symptoms and confusion. His 6-year-old son recorded a video of him that day.
He called police after finding a handwritten note about things hidden in the house. It listed oleander and several medicines, and at the top Cheryl Gates had written herself a reminder to clear all conversations and log out of ChatGPT. Officers got the chat logs. They also saw white residue in the video of a Celsius can he had thrown away, then tested 10 cans of the same flavor and found none with residue before seeking an arrest warrant.
OpenAI's answer and the demands
An OpenAI spokesperson told Ars Technica that safety is a top priority. The company banned the user and gave information to law enforcement for its investigation.
The suit also alleges that Altman put profit ahead of safety by loosening safeguards on drug topics. Gates seeks compensatory and punitive damages, an injunction and what the filing calls "algorithmic disgorgement". He wants OpenAI ordered to detect and interrupt conversations in which users seem to be planning violence against identifiable people.
Source: Ars Technica