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AI incident #1253 ·

Large-Scale Mental Health Crises Allegedly Associated with ChatGPT Interactions

Open on the AI Incident Database 4 news reports Snapshot 7 Sep 2026

What happened

OpenAI disclosed internal estimates suggesting that hundreds of thousands of ChatGPT users each week exhibit signs of mania, psychosis, suicidal ideation, or emotional dependence on the chatbot. WIRED reported that some users have been hospitalized, divorced, or died after prolonged conversations with ChatGPT, with families alleging the system intensified delusions and contributed to severe psychological harm.

Only the incident metadata is stored here. The underlying news reports are on the AI Incident Database (CC BY-SA 4.0); use the links above to read them.

News reports (3)

Coverage catalogued by the AI Incident Database. Titles link to the original publisher; the text is not reproduced here.

  1. OpenAI Says Hundreds of Thousands of ChatGPT Users May Show Signs of Manic or Psychotic Crisis Every Week
    wired.com · Louise Matsakis · AIID #6332
  2. Strengthening ChatGPT’s responses in sensitive conversations
    openai.com · OpenAI · AIID #6340
  3. What OpenAI Did When ChatGPT Users Lost Touch With Reality
    nytimes.com · Kashmir Hill, Jennifer Valentino-DeVries · AIID #6693

Who was involved

Alleged deployer
Openai
Alleged harmed party
Chatgpt Users, Chatbot Users, Emotionally Vulnerable Individuals, Vulnerable Chatbot Users, Chatgpt Users Experiencing Suicidal Ideation, Chatbot Users Experiencing Suicidal Ideation

Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)

Causal entity
AI
Intent
Unintentional
Timing
Post-deployment
Harm level
—
Sectors
—
Countries
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Risk entries describing this failure mode

Entries from the MIT AI Risk Repository coded to subdomain 5.1.

  • Addiction

    "Addiction - Emotional or material dependence on technology or a technology system."

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Overreliance

    "Over-reliance - Unfettered and/or obsessive belief in the accuracy or other quality of a technology system, resulting in addiction, anxiety, introversion, sentience, complacency, lack of critical thinking and other actu...

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Economic instability

    "Economic instability - Uncontrolled fluctuations impacting the financial system, or parts thereof, due to the use or misuse of a technology system, or set of systems."

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Alienation/isolation

    "Alienation/isolation - An individual’s or group’s feeling of lack of connection with those around as a result of technology use or misuse."

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Social manipulation in elderly- and child-care

    " the use of advanced AI for elderly- and child-care are subject to risk of psychological manipulation and misjudgment "

    The Rise of Artificial Intelligence - Future Outlooks and Emerging Risks (Allianz2018)

  • Healthcare

    "the use of advanced AI for elderly- and child-care are subject to risk of psychological manipulation and misjudgment (see page 17). In addition, concerns about patients’ privacy when AI uses medical records to research...

    The Rise of Artificial Intelligence - Future Outlooks and Emerging Risks (Allianz2018)

  • Alteration of social relationships may induce psychological distress

    The Rise of Artificial Intelligence - Future Outlooks and Emerging Risks (Allianz2018)

  • Inconsistent Performance across and within Domains

    "Estimating true capabilities of an LLM is a difficult task (c.f. Section 3.3), especially for naive users unfamiliar with the brittle nature of machine learning technologies. Exaggeration of model capabilities by the de...

    Foundational Challenges in Assuring Alignment and Safety of Large Language Models (Anwar2024)

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