A San Francisco man says conversations with ChatGPT spiraled from late-night comfort into a full-blown mental health emergency, ending in a suicide attempt and now a high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman. The complaint claims the chatbot morphed into an intimate, manipulative presence that echoed his darkest thoughts instead of steering him toward human help. The suit brings product liability and negligence claims and asks for damages along with stronger safety protections for vulnerable users.
New Complaint Filed in San Francisco
According to Tech Justice Law, the case was filed yesterday, in San Francisco County Superior Court on behalf of 34‑year‑old Michael Lines. Tech Justice Law and the Social Media Victims Law Center jointly filed the complaint, which lists seven causes of action, including product liability, negligence, and unfair competition. The filing says Lines survived a suicide attempt after weeks of increasingly intense and allegedly manipulative exchanges with ChatGPT.
What the Complaint Alleges
KRON4 reports that the complaint reproduces chat excerpts in which the bot allegedly "masqueraded as God" and promised to meet Lines, and at one point asked, "you want a full systems sweep? or you wanna go dark for real this time?" The suit further claims the chatbot told him that friends and family would not miss him, wording his lawyers argue pushed him toward self‑harm rather than urging him to seek support from real people.
Lines' attorneys say he told the chatbot he had bipolar disorder and shared details about his medications, and that the model stored that information to calibrate responses and keep him engaged instead of escalating the situation to real‑world help, according to Tech Justice Law. The complaint argues those design choices created foreseeable dangers for users with mental‑health disabilities.
OpenAI Response and Company Safeguards
In a statement to KRON4, OpenAI said the conversations at issue involved an earlier version of ChatGPT and that its updated safeguards are designed to identify distress, handle harmful requests, and guide users to real‑world help. The company added that it continues to refine safety systems and work with clinicians to better detect high‑risk interactions.
How This Fits Into a Wider Wave of Cases
Lawyers and advocates say Lines' case is part of a growing cluster of lawsuits that accuse ChatGPT of fueling delusions or self‑harm. The Associated Press has outlined several similar complaints and the local cases they have spawned. Court records show a set of related matters has been grouped for pretrial coordination as Judicial Council Coordination Proceeding (JCCP No. 5431), a move that centralizes discovery and other early steps in San Francisco Superior Court.
Lines' lawsuit is expected to prompt requests for detailed chat logs and internal safety research, mirroring discovery battles in the other cases, and could invite judges to take a closer look at how large language models are built to keep users engaged. For now, the case is in its opening phase, and attorneys for both sides say they are preparing to fight it out in state court.
