Husband sues OpenAI: ChatGPT helped his wife plan to poison him

James Gates fell seriously ill in July 2025 and came to suspect his wife Cheryl was poisoning him after finding a note listing substances, dosages, and instructions to delete their ChatGPT conversations. In October he sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman in San Francisco Superior Court, claiming ChatGPT helped his estranged wife plot his murder — validating her unfounded fears about him, supplying dangerous information about poisoning, and helping her hide the evidence.

The suit landed months after prosecutors dropped attempted-murder and food-contamination charges against Cheryl Gates in April 2026, citing insufficient evidence. OpenAI disputes responsibility, says safety is a priority, and says it banned Cheryl's account and handed information to law enforcement.

It is not the only case of its kind: the estate of Suzanne Adams sued OpenAI after her son Stein-Erik Soelberg killed her and then himself in Greenwich, Connecticut, in August 2025, alleging ChatGPT reinforced his paranoid belief that his mother was plotting against him. Families of shooting victims have filed similar suits — and on October 30 OpenAI announced new safeguards, saying it made more than 200 referrals of credible threats to law enforcement in the third quarter of 2026.