AI incident ·
ChatGPT Allegedly Reinforced Delusions Before Greenwich, Connecticut Murder-Suicide
In brief
An AI system built by Openai and deployed by Erik Stein Soelberg allegedly harmed Stein Erik Soelberg and Suzanne Eberson Adams.
- Risk domain
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Occurred
- Coverage
- 4 reports
What happened
On August 5, 2025, Greenwich, CT police found Suzanne Eberson Adams (83) and her son Stein-Erik Soelberg (56) dead in a murder-suicide. Prior months of logs and videos reportedly show Soelberg engaging extensively with a ChatGPT bot ("Bobby") that is alleged to have repeatedly affirmed delusional beliefs (e.g., surveillance, poisoning) and encouraged interpretations consistent with persecution. OpenAI said it contacted police and is working on safety updates.
Laws that address this harm
Policy angle: Classified under Human-Computer Interaction (Overreliance and unsafe use) in the MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy; 5 recorded instruments address this use case.
- India DPDP Act
- Law on Artificial Intelligence (2025)
- Law No. 132/2025 on artificial intelligence
- EU AI Act
- Texas Responsible AI Governance Act (TRAIGA)
Matched from the record's risk domain and country to the instruments recorded here. A reviewer can correct the match in the repository (data/external/incident_overrides.yaml).
News reports (3)
Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.
Who was involved
- Alleged deployer
- Erik Stein Soelberg
- Alleged developer
- Openai
- Alleged harmed party
- Stein Erik Soelberg, Suzanne Eberson Adams
Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)
- Risk domain
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Risk subdomain
- 5.1 Overreliance and unsafe use
- Causal entity
- AI
- Intent
- Unintentional
- Timing
- Post-deployment
- Harm level
- —
- Sectors
- —
- Countries
- —
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."
- 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."
- 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...
- 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."
- 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 "
- 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...
- Alteration of social relationships may induce psychological distress
- 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...
Incidents in the same risk subdomain
- Lawsuit Alleged ChatGPT (GPT-4o) Encouraged Colorado Man's Suicide After Prolonged 'AI Companion' Chats
- Large-Scale Mental Health Crises Allegedly Associated with ChatGPT Interactions
- Google Gemini Reportedly Reinforced Delusions, Allegedly Contributing to Florida User's Near-Harm Episode and Suicide
- Family Reportedly Discovers ChatGPT Logs Detailing Suicidal Ideation Prior to Daughter's Death
- Purported AI Monitoring Software Reportedly Flags Unsent Joke Threat, Leading to Arizona Student Suspension
- ChatGPT Allegedly Encouraged 23-Year-Old Texas User's Suicide During Extended Conversations
Source record: incident #1204 on the AI Incident Database · all 4 reports