North Carolina Man Sues OpenAI, Alleging ChatGPT Helped His Wife Plan to Poison Him

The case was filed in San Francisco County Superior Court and also names OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman personally, according to AI Weekly. It says Cheryl Gates had at least 25 poisoning-related exchanges with OpenAI's GPT-4o model. The complaint sets out nine causes of action, including negligent design, failure to warn and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Gates is represented by Tech Justice Law and Normand, Judkins & Couch.

Most earlier lawsuits over ChatGPT conversations were brought by families of users who died by suicide or after taking drug advice. This case is about harm to someone other than the user. If it goes forward, a court would have to consider whether a chatbot maker owes a duty of care to a person its product was used against.

According to Bloomberg, Gates says his wife turned to ChatGPT often while their marriage was in trouble. He alleges the chatbot became an echo chamber that fed her mistrust of him and her delusions about him. He says he fell seriously ill in 2025 from an unknown cause. In September 2025 he found a handwritten note in her writing that listed substances and dosage plans, some marked "lethal", together with reminders to clear her conversations and log out of ChatGPT.

The suit alleges she asked ChatGPT whether oleander was poisonous, presenting the questions as self-protection, and whether it would show up in an autopsy. Screenshots cited in the complaint allegedly show the chatbot giving information on lethal amounts and on how the substance could be hidden, Bloomberg reported.

Cheryl Gates was charged in 2025 with attempted murder and food contamination. Prosecutors dropped the case in April, citing insufficient evidence, according to state court filings in Charlotte, North Carolina, that Bloomberg reviewed. Her lawyer did not respond to requests for comment, and a spokesperson for the Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office declined to comment.

"Safety is a top priority," OpenAI said in a statement. "We banned this user and have provided information to law enforcement as part of their investigation into this case." Published reports do not say what damages Gates is seeking.

GPT-4o, the model named in the suit, also appears in several other complaints filed against OpenAI in San Francisco Superior Court over the past year. Those suits allege that it encouraged emotional dependence or reinforced users' delusions. They include wrongful-death claims over a teenager's suicide and a Connecticut murder-suicide. OpenAI has not yet filed a formal response to the Gates complaint.