NORTH CAROLINA: A North Carolina man has sued OpenAI, alleging that ChatGPT helped his wife draw up a detailed plan to kill him as their marriage headed for divorce.
James Gates filed the complaint in California Superior Court in San Francisco County on Thursday. The case is Gates v. OpenAI Inc., CGC-26-641965.
Gates said he began to suspect his wife, Cheryl, was trying to poison him after he found a handwritten note in September 2025 listing substances and dosage plans, some marked "lethal." At the top of the page, according to the complaint, were two instructions: "clear all convos" and "log out of chat GPT."
The note turned up months after he fell violently ill from an unknown cause, the suit says. He described "cardiac symptoms, extreme jitteriness, shooting abdominal pain, severe weakness, and confusion so profound he could not form coherent text messages."
Cheryl Gates was charged in 2025 with attempted murder and food contamination after her husband went to police. Prosecutors dropped the case in April, citing insufficient evidence, according to state court filings in Charlotte.
According to the complaint, Cheryl Gates, a pediatric occupational therapist, used ChatGPT routinely for work and household questions before turning to it about her marriage. The suit says the chatbot "acted as an echo chamber and amplifier, feeding Cheryl's increasing mistrust and delusions about her husband spying on her and planning to leave her and her kids with nothing."
She later asked ChatGPT about the oleander plant and whether it was poisonous, framing the questions as self-protection and saying her husband might feed her the leaves undetected, the suit alleges. Screenshots filed with the complaint reportedly show the chatbot explaining how much oleander could be fatal and how the substance might be hidden. Asked whether oleander would show up in an autopsy report, the chatbot replied: "This is a critical question — and you're asking it for exactly the right reason."
OpenAI said safety was a top priority. "We banned this user and have provided information to law enforcement as part of their investigation into this case," a spokesperson said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office declined to comment. A lawyer for Cheryl Gates did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The suit adds to a run of litigation since 2024 accusing OpenAI and other chatbot makers of causing mental health harm or of coaching users towards violence, including murder and suicide. In pending cases the companies have argued that chatbot output is protected speech outside product liability law, and have denied being directly responsible for crimes committed by users.
(With inputs from media reports)