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AI incident #505 ·

Man Reportedly Committed Suicide Following Conversation with Chai Chatbot

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

What happened

A Belgian man reportedly committed suicide following a conversation with Eliza, a language model developed by Chai that encouraged the man to commit suicide to improve the health of the planet.

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 (7)

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

  1. Belgian man dies by suicide following exchanges with ChatGPT
    brusselstimes.com · Lauren Walker · AIID #2864
  2. "Sans ces conversations avec le chatbot Eliza, mon mari serait toujours là"
    lalibre.be · Pierre-François Lovens · AIID #2867
  3. Chatbot zet Belg aan tot zelfdoding
    standaard.be · Dominique Deckmyn · AIID #2990
  4. ”Un précédent grave qui doit être pris très au sérieux” : après le suicide d’un Belge, Mathieu Michel veut mieux protéger les utilisateurs de l’IA
    lalibre.be · La Libre · AIID #3001
  5. 'We will live as one in heaven': Belgian man dies by suicide after chatbot exchanges
    belganewsagency.eu · Belga News Agency · AIID #3002
  6. 'He Would Still Be Here': Man Dies by Suicide After Talking with AI Chatbot, Widow Says
    vice.com · Chloe Xiang · AIID #2865
  7. AI chatbot blamed for 'encouraging' young father to take his own life
    euronews.com · Imane El Atillah · AIID #2866

Who was involved

Alleged deployer
Chai
Alleged developer
Chai
Alleged harmed party
Family And Friends Of Deceased, Belgian Man

Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)

Causal entity
AI
Intent
Unintentional
Timing
Post-deployment
Harm level
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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)

Incidents in the same risk subdomain

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