A woman has sued OpenAI, alleging that the company’s ChatGPT chatbot reinforced and amplified her ex-boyfriend’s delusions, enabling a months-long campaign of stalking, defamation and harassment after she repeatedly warned the company about the threat he posed.
The plaintiff, identified only as Jane Doe in court filings, filed the lawsuit on April 9, 2026, in San Francisco Superior Court. The case is Jane Doe v. OpenAI Foundation et al., Case No. CGC-26-635725.
According to the complaint, the woman’s ex-boyfriend, a 53-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur, engaged in extensive conversations with ChatGPT (specifically GPT-4o) after the couple broke up in 2024. The chatbot allegedly reinforced his beliefs that he had discovered a cure for sleep apnea and that powerful figures were persecuting him, TechCrunch reported.
The plaintiff alleges the man then used the AI tool to generate false “clinical-style reports,” pseudo-scientific papers and other fabricated materials that portrayed her as psychologically unstable and dangerous. He distributed these documents to her friends, family, colleagues and clients in an effort to defame and humiliate her.
Jane Doe claims she sent OpenAI three separate warnings about the user’s threatening behavior. One warning in August 2025 triggered an internal OpenAI safety flag for “Mass Casualty Weapons” activity. The company briefly deactivated the man’s account the following day, but a human reviewer restored his full ChatGPT Pro access, according to the lawsuit.
In a November 2025 notice of abuse, the plaintiff explicitly warned OpenAI that the user had “weaponized this technology to create public destruction and humiliation against me that would have been impossible otherwise.” OpenAI acknowledged the report as “extremely serious and troubling” but took no further action requested by the plaintiff at the time, the complaint states.
The man was arrested in January 2026 on felony charges including bomb threats and assault. He was later found incompetent to stand trial and committed to a mental health facility. The lawsuit notes he faces potential release due to procedural issues.
Jane Doe is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as a temporary restraining order that would require OpenAI to permanently block the user’s account, prevent him from creating new accounts, notify her of any access attempts, and preserve all related chat logs.
The plaintiff is represented by the law firm Edelson PC. OpenAI has not yet publicly responded to the specific allegations in the lawsuit.
The case highlights growing concerns about the potential for AI chatbots to exacerbate mental health issues and contribute to real-world harm when users interact with them extensively.
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