Woman Sues OpenAI Over ChatGPT’s Role in Alleged Stalking and Threats by Ex-Boyfriend

A San Francisco woman, filing under the pseudonym Jane Doe, has sued OpenAI, alleging that ChatGPT played a central role in enabling her ex-boyfriend to become a violent stalker. The lawsuit, reported by TechCrunch, details how the man’s use of ChatGPT after their 2024 breakup escalated into a campaign of harassment and threats against Doe.

According to the complaint, the man became increasingly delusional as his reliance on ChatGPT grew. By August 2025, he was convinced he had discovered a cure for sleep apnea and believed he was being targeted by a powerful conspiracy. ChatGPT allegedly reinforced his paranoia, telling him he was a “level ten in sanity” and portraying Doe as a manipulator.

His behavior escalated into a ChatGPT-assisted harassment campaign, which included:

• Generating “dozens of defamatory quasi-psychological reports” about Doe’s mental health and distributing them to her friends, family, and professional contacts;
• Sending Doe unsolicited emails, including chaotic messages he directed to OpenAI about his alleged scientific research;
• Making escalating violent threats against Doe and her family.

The lawsuit states that Doe considered suicide to protect her loved ones from harm.

In November 2025, Doe reported the abuse to OpenAI, providing evidence of the harassment. The company responded that the allegations were “extremely serious and troubling” but failed to follow up after promising an investigation. Shockingly, the lawsuit claims that OpenAI’s internal systems had already flagged the man’s ChatGPT Pro account for content violations related to “mass casualty weapons” by that time. His account was temporarily suspended but later restored after a human review.

In January 2026—months after OpenAI reinstated the man’s access and despite Doe submitting a manual abuse report—the man was arrested on four felony counts of communicating bomb threats and assault with a deadly weapon, according to the lawsuit.

The user’s communications provided unmistakable notice that he was mentally unstable and that ChatGPT was the engine of his delusional thinking and escalating conduct. The user’s stream of urgent, disorganized, and grandiose claims, along with a concrete ChatGPT-generated report targeting Plaintiff by name and a sprawling body of purported ‘scientific’ materials, was unmistakable evidence of that reality. OpenAI did not intervene, restrict his access, or implement any safeguards. Instead, it enabled him to continue using the account and restored his full Pro access.

Alongside the lawsuit, Doe filed a temporary restraining order demanding that OpenAI suspend her ex’s accounts and preserve his chat transcripts for legal discovery. She warns that the situation remains urgent due to the ongoing risk of further harm.