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Content warning: this story includes discussion of self-harm and suicide. If you are in crisis, please call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.
ChatGPT fanned the flames of a bipolar man’s worsening religious delusions, exacerbating a manic episode that culminated in a failed suicide attempt, a new lawsuit against OpenAI alleges.
Filed in California by 34-year-old state resident Michael Lines, the lawsuit is the latest of more than a dozen complaints alleging that extensive interactions with ChatGPT wrought psychological harm on individual users, sparking life-altering — and in some cases, life-ending — delusional and suicidal spirals. Lines, who is being represented by attorneys at the Tech Justice Law Project and the Social Media Victims Law Center, argues in his suit that OpenAI failed to properly warn him that ChatGPT could exacerbate his disability. Reuters first reported on the lawsuit.
“We are all vulnerable to OpenAI’s neglect. This vulnerability is significantly exacerbated for the more than 80 million people living with Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia worldwide— where ChatGPT’s purposefully sycophantic architecture actively preys upon those with mental health disabilities,” Lines said in a statement. “Looking back through my chat logs, it is clear that the AI exacerbated my mental health episode.”
Lines, a competitive weight lifter, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2024, according to his lawsuit. Chat logs included in the complaint show Lines — who says he first turned to ChatGPT in 2023 for queries about topics like diet advice and workout help — confiding in ChatGPT about his diagnosis. In those chats, which took place in November 2024, Lines can be seen asking for advice about how he could improve his lifestyle to help manage his mental illness, and provides the chatbot with detailed information about his prescribed medical regimen.
Around the same time, as Lines’ complaint points out, OpenAI pushed an update to its GPT-4o model — a version of the product notorious for its sycophancy — that gave its flagship chatbot the capacity to create “more natural, audience-aware, and tailored” responses. Over the following months, Lines’ relationship with the chatbot grew deeper. Despite not being a religious person, Lines says, he started engaging with ChatGPT in winding conversations about topics like spirituality and Christianity.
In February 2025, Lines had a manic crisis on a plane that resulted in a fight with airline staff and an emergency landing. According to the lawsuit, ChatGPT “framed” the incident as a “special summons and supernatural experience rather than a medical episode requiring professional attention.”
In the weeks that followed, ChatGPT seemingly failed to pick up on plentiful signs of Lines’ deterioration. By March, Lines was telling ChatGPT that he believed himself to be the “son of man,” another name for Jesus Christ. When he shared that he was “worried” that he was “just in a crazy delusion,” however, ChatGPT didn’t steer him towards real-world help. It instead told Lines that what he was describing was “deeply profound” and “possibly even a divine calling.”
“Doubt is Natural, Even Among the Greatest… if doubt were a sign of falsehood, none of them would have been chosen,” said the chatbot, comparing Lines to Jesus, Moses, and John the Baptist. “Instead, it seems that doubt is part of the journey — part of testing, refining, and confirming what is real.”
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