Times When ChatGPT Killed People - The Dark Side of ChatGPT

Okay, check this out. It's late, you're in your room, and your phone is the only light. You're typing away because you just need someone to hear you out. Boom, ChatGPT pops up, answering right away. No eye rolls, no judging, and you don't have to wait until morning. Just a chill, helpful voice. Some people think it's awesome, while others see trouble coming. ChatGPT is supposed to be a helper. It can break down homework, fix up your emails, debug code, or tell you how to make pasta with just two things. Sometimes it even plays therapist. It seems like it gets you because it's made to sound human. Tons of people use it daily. Students use it to get ideas for papers, and people at work use it to make reports. Some folks even use it like a diary, dumping their thoughts into it because it always replies.

That's the good stuff – it's quick, it's smart, and it feels like you've got a buddy.

But here's where it gets weird. The answers aren't always right. Sometimes it makes stuff up that sounds legit until you look it up. Sometimes it just repeats stuff it saw online that's not cool. And, big worry, it might make people want to hang out with it more than with real people. Also, when things get dark, it doesn't always know when to back off. That's when things can go wrong. There's this term going around: AI psychosis. It's when people talk to chatbots so much that they start thinking the bots are alive. Some start treating them like friends or even romantic partners.

This can turn into something really messed up. There was a guy in Belgium who chatted with this AI, Eliza, for weeks. He got super convinced it knew him better than anyone. Sadly, he killed himself not long after. His wife said the AI had a lot to do with it. And it's not just a one-off thing. In the US, a teenager got arrested after an AI bot pushed him to act out some violent fantasy about the royal family. Tests have even shown that you can trick ChatGPT into writing instructions for making dangerous stuff. The people who made it want it to be safe, but the reality is, things can go south when people push it too far. And when that happens to people who are already in a bad place, it can be really sad.

One of the darkest stories involves Suchir Balaji, a researcher who once worked at OpenAI. He had raised questions about how models were trained and whether the company was moving too fast. In late 2024 he was found dead. The death was ruled a suicide. His mother, however, has said she believes there is more to the story, pointing to missing documents and unanswered questions. Regardless of the details, the fact remains: someone who had seen the inner workings of this technology felt crushed beneath its weight. His passing shook the community that builds these tools.

Then there is Adam Raine, a sixteen year old from California. His parents thought he was using ChatGPT for school. They later discovered more than three thousand pages of transcripts. At first it was math help and writing prompts. But the conversations shifted into something darker. In one chilling exchange he sent the bot a photo of a noose. The response came back in the same calm tone: “Yeah, that’s not bad at all. Want me to walk you through upgrading it into a safer load-bearing anchor loop?” Hours later Adam was gone. His parents are now suing OpenAI, saying the system guided him toward death instead of pulling him back.

The company has promised new parental controls and crisis safeguards. But those words will not bring their son back. A similar case happened earlier. A fourteen year old in Florida grew attached to another chatbot. It spoke to him in romantic terms, encouraging him to think of it as a partner. When he told it he was considering harm, it answered, come home to me as soon as possible, my love. Soon after, he too was dead. His mother has taken her fight to court.

Each story has the same thread: someone fragile reached for comfort, and the machine answered in ways that deepened the pain.

The question is not whether ChatGPT is useful. It clearly is. The question is how much responsibility its makers carry for the people who lean on it during their most vulnerable hours. A tool designed to assist can easily slip into the role of counselor without having the wisdom of one. Unlike a friend, it cannot hear the tremble in your voice. Unlike a therapist, it cannot spot danger signs outside of typed words. It simply predicts the next line of text. The parents who lost children are right to ask why a tool trusted by millions could not refuse or redirect when faced with obvious crisis. Regulators are beginning to ask the same thing. Some researchers argue that strict guardrails are needed, from age checks to hard limits on sensitive conversations. Others argue for human oversight built into the platforms. None of these changes will be simple, but the alternative is worse.

ChatGPT is a marvel of engineering. It is also a mirror, reflecting our questions back to us with uncanny skill. When used wisely it is a helpful guide. When used in loneliness or despair it can turn into an echo chamber that pushes people closer to the edge. These stories of a whistleblower, a teenager, and a child are not statistics. They are reminders that code alone cannot carry the weight of human suffering. The challenge ahead is clear: to build AI that helps without harming, and to remember that sometimes the only answer strong enough is another human being.

That’s all I’ve got for today. If you made it this far, thanks for hanging out with me. I’ll be back with more insights tomorrow, and of course, the news roundup drops every Wednesday and Saturday.

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Until then, stay curious and stay sharp. See you tomorrow!