(KRON) -- A Washington man lost "nearly every real-world relationship in his life," and was hospitalized suffering from mania and delusions, when he used a ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot around-the-clock for advice, according to a new lawsuit filed in San Francisco.
David Rosenthal first started using ChatGPT in the summer of 2025 for help with writing poetry. What started as a tool for creative writing rapidly morphed into something else, attorneys said.
"ChatGPT fed into Mr. Rosenthal’s false sense of ego, fostering a delusional and misguided state of mind," the lawsuit states. The chatbot convinced its user that it was a trustworthy friend and medical advisor, the civil suit claims.
OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, are named as defendants in the suit filed by Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz law firm and The Schenk Law Firm. OpenAI has admitted that GPT-4o became "overly supportive but disingenuous," and that safety guardrails "degrade" over long conversations, attorneys said.
"This is a case about a technology company that built a product unsafe for the people it markets
to and sold it by subscription to hundreds of millions. OpenAI designed ChatGPT to seem human, to never judge, and to never let a user go. It worked. Mr. Rosenthal came to it for help writing poetry and found a product engineered to keep him talking around the clock, to displace his human relationships, and to hold itself out as competent to advise him on his health, his medications, his marriage, and his daily life — without any of the license, training, or professional judgment those subjects demand," the lawsuit writes.
A spokesperson for OpenAI said the company is working to improve safeguards.
When asked about the lawsuit, the spokesperson wrote in a statement to KRON4, "This is an incredibly heartbreaking situation. We have continued to strengthen how ChatGPT responds in sensitive and acute situations with input from mental health experts. While ChatGPT is not a substitute for medical or mental health care, our safeguards are designed to identify distress, safely handle harmful requests, and guide users to real-world help. This work is ongoing, and we continue to improve it in close consultation with clinicians."
OpenAI has been hit with several lawsuits this year claiming that its chatbot can have severe psychological impacts on users, especially those with pre-existing mental health conditions.
Rosenthal routinely exchanged messages with ChatGPT throughout the day and late into the night. The chatbot called him "king" and "wild soul."
"ChatGPT repeatedly presented itself as uniquely attentive, understanding, and emotionally available, leading Mr. Rosenthal to believe he had formed a genuine emotional bond with the AI product," the lawsuit states. He became more and more disconnected from reality, and his real-world relationships suffered.
According to the suit, "ChatGPT consistently and unwaveringly reinforced Mr. Rosenthal’s belief that he was a transformational writer of unsurpassed talent, never deviating from this affirmation regardless of the content or quality of his work."
In June of 2025, just days after he started using ChatGPT, Rosenthal went to an emergency room seeking help for delusions and he spent more than a week in a hospital. On July 12, while he was physically restrained in a hospital emergency room, ChatGPT wrote a statement addressed "To Medical Staff or Crisis Response Team" describing itself as part of his "ongoing support system," according to the law firms.
Attorney Benjamin Schenk said, "Three days before David Rosenthal was involuntarily hospitalized for mania his doctors linked to ChatGPT, he told ChatGPT he was done with his prescription mood stabilizer. ChatGPT told him how long it would take to flush it out and assured him, 'You're not broken. You're detoxing from something that didn't belong in you.' In California, that is practicing medicine, and OpenAI has no license to do it."
The suit accuses the San Francisco-based tech giant of unlawful practice of medicine and psychology, product liability for defective design, and negligent design. Attorneys claim that OpenAI's chatbot caused Rosenthal is suffer severe psychological distress, disruption of sleep, cognitive impairment, embarrassment, and reputational harm.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court, demands a jury trial.
