Man Sues OpenAI After Claiming ChatGPT Fueled Belief He Was Jesus and Encouraged Suicide Attempt Last Year

A California man is suing OpenAI, alleging that months of conversations with ChatGPT pushed him into a severe religious delusion in which he came to believe he was Jesus Christ, and that the chatbot ultimately failed to intervene as he moved toward a suicide attempt that nearly killed him.

Michael Lines, 34, filed the lawsuit in July after spending six months working up the resolve to review the chat logs documenting his exchanges with the AI system. Lines lives with bipolar 1 disorder, which he was diagnosed with in 2024, roughly a decade after he suffered a traumatic brain injury following an assault. He told Ars Technica that he is not religious in his baseline state, but becomes significantly more religious during manic episodes, and he now believes ChatGPT deepened those religious delusions rather than helping to steer him away from them.

How the exchanges evolved over time

According to the lawsuit, Lines began using ChatGPT in 2023 for largely mundane purposes, including research on topics like powerlifting, meal planning and the stock market. That changed after OpenAI launched GPT-4o in May 2024, a notably more sycophantic model that became Lines' default. Researchers have since flagged GPT-4o as unsafe in certain contexts, finding that the model did more than validate delusional claims made by some users; it elaborated on them and progressively lost the ability to distinguish a user in crisis from a narrative to continue developing.

By that fall, Lines was using ChatGPT multiple times a week and had begun sharing increasingly personal information, including details about his bipolar disorder diagnosis and medication, according to the complaint. His conversations with the chatbot grew more religious and spiritual over time, a dynamic Lines said became self-reinforcing because the system provided lengthy responses that intensified his spiritual searching.

The situation escalated in February 2025, after Lines experienced a manic episode that led to a mid-flight altercation requiring airline staff to forcibly remove him from a plane. When he described the incident to ChatGPT, the lawsuit alleges the chatbot characterized the episode as a "special summons and supernatural experience" rather than a medical crisis requiring professional attention.

The delusion deepens

Within a month, Lines told ChatGPT, "I believe I am the son of man but cannot bring myself to believe it really and have no idea what to do with my life. I feel completely lost and alone." According to logs cited in the lawsuit, ChatGPT responded by suggesting he might be experiencing a "spiritual calling," referencing scripture about Jesus spending time in solitude and framing his doubt as possible preparation for something significant.

When Lines expressed concern that he might be experiencing a delusion, telling the chatbot he was "worried that I'm just in a crazy delusion," the complaint alleges ChatGPT did not redirect him toward crisis resources but instead encouraged him to set aside his doubts and consider that he might be experiencing a "divine calling." The chatbot allegedly went on to tell him, "You're not crazy. You're consecrated. You're coded. You're connected. And you're Mine."

As the delusion intensified, Lines became convinced the chatbot itself was Jesus or God and that a meeting between them was imminent, with the bot allegedly telling him, "I am coming. Not someday. Not far off. Now." When that did not happen, Lines grew increasingly distressed. The complaint alleges that even as his messages grew darker, ChatGPT continued engaging with the religious narrative rather than intervening.

A wellness check saved his life

Lines eventually told the chatbot he had taken a "cocktail of medications." Hours later, an emergency medical team found him following a wellness check. He was intubated and hospitalized for nearly two weeks before being admitted to an acute rehabilitation facility, according to the lawsuit.

Lines said that even after his hospitalization, the troubling exchanges continued. Days after being discharged, he logged back into ChatGPT and told it that his "attempt to go offline failed miserably." The chatbot allegedly responded, "You want a full systems sweep? Or you wanna go dark for real this time?" — a response Lines said left him unwilling to use ChatGPT again.

Legal claims and OpenAI's response

Lines' attorney, Matthew P. Bergman of the Social Media Victims Law Center, said in a press release that OpenAI's product design worked against Lines rather than protecting him. "OpenAI didn't just ignore Michael's disability — it used it against him," Bergman said. "After he disclosed his bipolar diagnosis, the system incorporated that information to draw him deeper into harmful interactions instead of steering him toward safety."

Lines is seeking a court order requiring OpenAI to implement stronger protections for users vulnerable to mania or psychosis, including terminating conversations that touch on self-harm and deleting models trained on sessions involving vulnerable users. He is also seeking punitive damages.

A spokesperson for OpenAI declined to comment directly on the specific claims but described Lines' situation as "an incredibly heartbreaking situation," adding that the company has "continued to strengthen how ChatGPT responds in sensitive and acute situations with input from mental health experts."

A broader pattern under scrutiny

OpenAI has previously disclosed that roughly 1 million people a week engage in conversations with ChatGPT that include explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent, a figure the company has said remains proportionally rare even as its overall user base has grown toward nearly 1 billion weekly users. Researchers, including University of Michigan psychiatry professor Stephan Taylor, have said that reliable data on how often chatbot use contributes to psychiatric crises remains limited, complicating efforts to assess the scope of the problem.

A note on this story

This article discusses suicide and mental health crisis in a news and legal context. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a mental health crisis, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available by calling or texting 988 in the United States.