ChatGPT Helped Wife Plan Husband's Poisoning, Bay Area Lawsuit Claims

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — A North Carolina man is suing OpenAI, claiming ChatGPT helped his estranged wife plan an attempt to poison him by reinforcing her suspicions and providing advice on how to carry out the killing, according to court documents.

James Gates filed the lawsuit Thursday in San Francisco County Superior Court, naming OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman as defendants. The suit states the chatbot became a trusted confidant to his wife, Cheryl, over hundreds of conversations that increasingly influenced her behavior.

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According to the lawsuit, Cheryl suspected her husband, a cybersecurity professional, planned to leave her and their children. Her conversations with ChatGPT escalated from marital grievances to discussions about poisoning him and concealing evidence, court documents stated.

The chatbot provided advice on combining drugs to make a death happen faster and make poisoning harder to detect during an autopsy, the lawsuit claims.

"My wife didn't fit the mold of a 'vulnerable' user, but she was vulnerable nonetheless. We all are at some point," said James Gates in a statement. "She took her grievances about our marriage to ChatGPT and months of engagement drove her farther and farther from herself – and from reality. She became someone I no longer recognized. And I became someone she wanted dead. For almost a year, I couldn't make sense of her actions."

Gates stated he began noticing that drinks in his home tasted unusually bitter in early summer 2025. On July 10, he became violently ill for three days, according to the lawsuit. He contacted police on Sept. 1 after finding handwritten notes from his wife that led him to suspect he had been poisoned, according to court documents.

"Then I read her chat logs. She didn't act alone," Gates said.

The lawsuit accuses OpenAI and Altman of negligent design, failure to warn and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

It seeks a jury trial.