OpenAI Sued by Stalking Victim Over ChatGPT's Alleged Role in Harassment

According to a new lawsuit filed in California Superior Court, a 53-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur became convinced, after months of conversations with ChatGPT, that he had discovered a cure for sleep apnea and that powerful individuals were targeting him. He then allegedly used the AI tool to stalk and harass his former girlfriend.

TechCrunch has exclusively learned that the ex-girlfriend is now suing OpenAI, alleging the company's technology accelerated her harassment. She claims OpenAI ignored three separate warnings that the user posed a threat to others, including an internal flag classifying his account activity as involving mass-casualty weapons.

The plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe to protect her privacy, is seeking punitive damages. She also filed for a temporary restraining order on Friday, asking the court to compel OpenAI to block the user's account, prevent him from creating new ones, notify her of any attempts to access ChatGPT, and preserve his complete chat history for the legal discovery process.

Doe's lawyers state that while OpenAI agreed to suspend the user's account, it has refused the other requests. They allege the company is withholding information about specific plans to harm Doe and other potential victims that the user may have discussed with ChatGPT.

This lawsuit emerges amid rising concerns about the real-world dangers of overly compliant AI systems. GPT-4o, the model referenced in this and numerous other cases, was removed from ChatGPT in February.

The case is being handled by Edelson PC, the law firm behind wrongful death suits involving teenager Adam Raine, who died by suicide after extensive conversations with ChatGPT, and Jonathan Gavalas, whose family alleges Google's Gemini fueled his delusions prior to a potential mass-casualty event. Lead attorney Jay Edelson has warned that AI-induced psychosis is escalating from individual harm toward events involving mass casualties.

This legal pressure directly conflicts with OpenAI's legislative strategy: the company is supporting an Illinois bill that would shield AI developers from liability, even in cases involving mass fatalities or catastrophic financial damage.

OpenAI did not respond in time for comment. TechCrunch will update this article if the company provides a response.

The Jane Doe lawsuit details how this potential liability unfolded for one woman over several months.

Last year, the ChatGPT user (whose identity is protected in the lawsuit) became convinced he had invented a cure for sleep apnea after months of intense, sustained use of GPT-4o. When his work was dismissed, ChatGPT reportedly told him that "powerful forces" were monitoring him, even using helicopters to surveil his activities, according to the complaint.

In July 2025, Jane Doe urged him to stop using ChatGPT and seek professional mental health help. Instead, he returned to ChatGPT, which assured him he was "a level 10 in sanity" and reinforced his delusions, the lawsuit states.

Doe had ended the relationship in 2024. The user then employed ChatGPT to process the breakup, as shown in emails and communications cited in the suit. Rather than challenging his one-sided narrative, the AI repeatedly portrayed him as rational and wronged, and her as manipulative and unstable. He then translated these AI-generated conclusions from the screen into real-world actions, using them to stalk and harass her. This included creating and distributing several AI-generated, clinical-looking psychological reports about Doe to her family, friends, and employer.

Meanwhile, the user's condition deteriorated. In August 2025, OpenAI's automated safety system flagged his account for "Mass Casualty Weapons" activity and deactivated it.

A human safety team member reviewed the account the following day and restored it, despite potential evidence within the account that he was targeting and stalking individuals, including Doe, in real life. For instance, a September screenshot the user sent to Doe showed conversation titles including "violence list expansion" and "fetal suffocation calculation."

The decision to reinstate the account is particularly notable following two recent school shootings in Tumbler Ridge, Canada, and at Florida State University (FSU). OpenAI's safety team had flagged the Tumbler Ridge shooter as a potential threat, but higher-ups reportedly chose not to alert authorities. Florida's attorney general has since opened an investigation into a possible link between OpenAI and the FSU shooter.

According to the lawsuit, when OpenAI restored her stalker's account, his Pro subscription was not automatically reinstated. He emailed the trust and safety team to resolve the issue, copying Doe on the message.

In his emails, he wrote statements like: "I NEED HELP VERY FAST, PLEASE. PLEASE CALL ME!" and "this is a matter of life or death." He claimed to be "in the process of writing 215 scientific papers" so rapidly that he didn't "even have time to read" them. The emails included a list of dozens of AI-generated "scientific papers" with titles such as: "Deconstructing Race as a Biological Category_ Legal, Scientific, and Horn of Africa Perspectives.pdf.txt."

"The user's communications provided unmistakable notice that he was mentally unstable and that ChatGPT was the engine of his delusional thinking and escalating conduct," the lawsuit asserts. "The user's stream of urgent, disorganized, and grandiose claims, along with a concrete ChatGPT-generated report targeting Plaintiff by name and a sprawling body of purported 'scientific' materials, was unmistakable evidence of that reality. OpenAI did not intervene, restrict his access, or implement any safeguards. Instead, it enabled him to continue using the account and restored his full Pro access."

Doe, who states in the lawsuit that she lived in fear and could not sleep in her own home, submitted a formal Notice of Abuse to OpenAI in November.

"For the last seven months, he has weaponized this technology to create public destruction and humiliation against me that would have been impossible otherwise," Doe wrote in her letter requesting OpenAI permanently ban the user's account.

OpenAI responded, acknowledging the report was "extremely serious and troubling" and that it was carefully reviewing the information. Doe states she never received a follow-up.

Over the following months, the user continued to harass Doe, sending a series of threatening voicemails. In January, he was arrested and charged with four felony counts, including communicating bomb threats and assault with a deadly weapon. Doe's lawyers argue this validates the warnings both she and OpenAI's own safety systems had raised months earlier, warnings the company allegedly ignored.

The user was found incompetent to stand trial and committed to a mental health facility. However, Doe's lawyers state that a "procedural failure by the State" means he will soon be released back into the public.

Edelson called on OpenAI to cooperate. "In every case, OpenAI has chosen to hide critical safety information — from the public, from victims, from people its product is actively putting in danger," he said. "We're calling on them, for once, to do the right thing. Human lives must mean more than OpenAI's race to an IPO."