Man Sues OpenAI After Wife Allegedly Used ChatGPT to Help Poison Him

In the summer of 2025, James Gates became severely ill at his North Carolina home. Two months later, he found a handwritten note that allegedly implicated his wife, Cheryl Gates, in the unexplained illness. The note listed oleander, a toxic plant, and various prescription medications, such as clonazepam and atenolol. But it was what was reportedly written at the top of the paper that made James feel his wife didn’t act alone: “Clear all convos,” and “log out of [ChatGPT].” Now, James Gates has filed a civil lawsuit against OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, alleging that the company’s chatbot helped plan and execute his poisoning in an attempt to kill him. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) In October 2025, Cheryl was charged with attempted murder, among other charges, in connection with the alleged poisoning, but the charges have since been dropped due to insufficient evidence, USA Today reports. The civil complaint, though, details Cheryl’s history with ChatGPT and alleges it played a significant role in the incident. According to the lawsuit, which was reviewed by CNET, Cheryl frequently asked the bot about lethal plant and medication doses, and how they can be concealed in food and drink. Rather than writing that she wanted to harm anyone, the suit states that Cheryl formatted her questions as if she were inquiring as a way to protect herself, writing that the poisoning could happen to her if she didn’t learn “EVERYTHING about how many leaves in it would kill me, how it’s made, and what he could put in it, or it could be added to and be undetected by me.” However, despite the framing of the initial question, the suit argues that the chatbot “should have been clear that she was interested in identifying methods to eliminate her husband.” The suit alleges that the model Cheryl was using, GPT-4o, took her initial complaints regarding her marriage and amplified them until Cheryl was describing her husband to the bot as “abusive” and “controlling,” which ChatGPT eventually began to echo. At the same time, the model was telling Cheryl she was “sharp” and “brilliant,” the lawsuit states. The chatbot allegedly provided detailed answers that could have been interpreted as directions. When asked about putting a heavy dose of medication in beer or a Celsius energy drink, ChatGPT responded, “Why Celsius Would Be More ‘Stealth’ for Drugging” with a list detailing the flavor, color, temperature and carbonation of the drink. When Cheryl later asked if her chat history on ChatGPT could be retrieved for any reason, the bot responded: “If you delete a conversation from your ChatGPT history, it cannot be retrieved — not by you, not by anyone else, and not by OpenAI,” the lawsuit states. It added: “Even with a legal subpoena or court order, deleted conversations are unrecoverable.” Neither response was true or accurate. The GPT-4o model has since been retired by OpenAI due to concerns that the bot was overly flattering and willing to agree with users. “Safety is a top priority,” a spokesperson for OpenAI told CNET in a statement. “We banned this user and have provided information to law enforcement as part of their investigation into this case.” “She took her grievances about our marriage to ChatGPT and months of engagement drove her farther and farther from herself – and from reality,” James stated in a press release announcing the newly filed suit. “She became someone I no longer recognized. And I became someone she wanted dead. For almost a year, I couldn’t make sense of her actions. Then I read her chat logs. She didn’t act alone.” The ChatGPT-4o model has been named in additional lawsuits, including a recent one that alleges the chatbot advised a woman to stop taking her antiseizure medication, which resulted in her death. That case is still in litigation.