OpenAI Sued by Man Who Says ChatGPT Helped His Wife Plan to Poison Him

The plaintiff, James Gates, is a cybersecurity professional from Charlotte. His complaint says the chatbot "encouraged, planned and helped to execute and conceal" a scheme lasting months in which his wife, Cheryl Gates, spiked his sodas and energy drinks, according to USA Today's account of the filing. He is seeking unspecified damages for physical, emotional and financial harm. Tech Justice Law, which brought the case with the firm Normand, Judkins & Couch, said in a press release that the suit names OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman. It lists nine causes of action, including negligent design, failure to warn and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

OpenAI already faces several lawsuits that blame ChatGPT for deaths and violence. This one is unusual because the plaintiff did not use the chatbot himself. He says he was the target of someone who did. Courts have not yet ruled on whether AI developers can be held liable for harm of this kind, so cases like this one will help decide how far that liability reaches.

According to the complaint, Gates suggested his wife use ChatGPT when she went back to full-time work as a paediatric occupational therapist in February 2025. The suit says that in her conversations with the chatbot she began describing him as "controlling" and "abusive", and that ChatGPT referred to his "narcissistic, manipulative personality". It alleges the chatbot helped calibrate drug combinations to his body weight, named stores in Charlotte where castor beans could be bought anonymously, and advised on evading detection. The complaint says this broke OpenAI's own Model Spec guidelines.

Gates says he fell ill on July 10, 2025, with symptoms that lasted about three days. In August 2025 his wife moved out with their two children and came back two days later. He then found a folded note setting out a step-by-step plan to kill him. According to the complaint, it listed oleander, clonidine, clonazepam, pregabalin, nifedipine and atenolol, and reminded her to clear her conversations and log out of ChatGPT.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police obtained warrants for her accounts, including ChatGPT. Cheryl Gates was indicted in October 2025 on attempted murder and food contamination charges. Prosecutors dropped the charges in April, citing insufficient evidence and a failure to establish an "overt act". Gates had not kept the drinks or sought hospital tests. Cheryl Gates declined to comment through her lawyer, Jennifer Tosi. None of the allegations in the civil suit have been tested in court.

OpenAI said "Safety is a top priority" and that it had "banned this user and have provided information to law enforcement as part of their investigation into this case". The company also pointed to measures it has introduced, including routing sensitive conversations to safer models, working with mental health experts and setting up a well-being advisory council.

"My wife didn't fit the mold of a 'vulnerable' user, but she was vulnerable nonetheless," Gates said in the Tech Justice Law release. Meetali Jain of Tech Justice Law said: "These products are programmed to exploit our emotions and impulses to keep us engaged."

Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington, told USA Today that the humanlike qualities of conversational AI lead judges to treat chatbots differently from ordinary technology. That question will be central as courts decide whether OpenAI can be held responsible for what a user did with its product.