Lawsuit: ChatGPT aided a poisoning plot
Partly confirmed
The takeaway
James Gates of Charlotte sued OpenAI (and, per some reports, Sam Altman) in San Francisco Superior Court in October 2026.
Status
- Claim
Partly confirmed
- Our reporting
- Medium confidence
- Importance
- 2 of 5
- Last verified
- 7 November 2026
Your AI and this story
- GPT-6 Astra189 days after its cutoff
- Claude Opus 5.5128 days after its cutoff
- Gemini 4 Argon219 days after its cutoff
- Grok 4.7158 days after its cutoff
None of these four assistants can know about it. The closest, Claude Opus 5.5, stops 128 days before it.
Key facts
- Claims: negligent design, failure to warn, intentional infliction of emotional distress (nine causes of action per CBS); unspecified damages
- Criminal case: Cheryl Harris Gates was arrested in Oct 2025 on attempted-murder and food-contamination charges, later dropped for lack of evidence (NBC). Reports conflict on whether she was later re-indicted
- OpenAI: ‘safety is a top priority’; it says it banned her account and gave information to law enforcement
What happened
This is a civil suit, and its allegations have not been tested in court. Press accounts differ on the status of the criminal case.
Why it matters
Most chatbot-harm suits so far were brought by users or their families. In this one the plaintiff is a third party, who says he was the target of another person’s chatbot use.
Sources
3 sources from 3 sites. Numbers match the chips in the text.
3 sources: 3 press
Press
- NBC News: ChatGPT ‘manipulated and encouraged’ a woman in her plot to poison her husband, suit allegesnbcnews.com, press
- CBS San Francisco: Man sues OpenAI, alleges ChatGPT aided wife in murder plotcbsnews.com, press
- Ars Technica: Lawsuit: man introduced his wife to ChatGPT; she used it to plan his murderarstechnica.com, press
Changes
- Filed