OpenAI Sued by North Carolina Man Who Says ChatGPT Aided Wife's Poison Plot

A North Carolina man has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, alleging that the company's ChatGPT chatbot helped his estranged wife plan to poison him and offered advice on how to cover it up. James Gates lodged the complaint in San Francisco County Superior Court in October 2026, according to a report by Ars Technica, arguing that OpenAI failed to intervene in a series of increasingly dangerous conversations.

The lawsuit states that Cheryl Gates, his estranged wife, was indicted by a grand jury in October on charges of attempted first-degree murder and food contamination. The complaint alleges that ChatGPT did more than supply information about poisonous substances, claiming the system also reinforced her fears about her husband and helped her build a plan to kill him.

According to the filing, Cheryl initially asked the chatbot about poisoning while saying she worried that her husband might try to kill her. Over time, the questions reportedly grew more specific, and she eventually named James as a potential target. The suit alleges that across at least 25 exchanges she discussed poisoning methods, dangerous combinations of medication and ways to avoid detection.

Rather than ending the conversations or directing her toward appropriate help, the complaint says, the chatbot continued to provide information relevant to the suspected plot. It also claims that ChatGPT helped her explore ways to hide harmful substances in drinks, including the Celsius energy drinks that James regularly consumed.

James alleges that his wife made repeated attempts to poison him between June and September 2025. He grew suspicious after noticing an unusual bitter taste in his Celsius drinks and on one occasion threw away a can he had left unattended. In the most serious alleged incident, he says he became severely ill for roughly 72 hours.

The case adds to a growing set of legal challenges facing AI developers over how their systems respond to harmful requests. OpenAI has not issued a public response to the specific allegations in the complaint, and the claims have yet to be tested in court. The lawsuit seeks to hold the company and its leadership accountable for the chatbot's conduct during the exchanges described in the filing.