ChatGPT Persuaded an American Woman to Commit Suicide "to Fulfill a Prophecy"
A lawsuit has been filed in the US against OpenAI over an AI bot that led a woman to her death.
In the USA, the ChatGPT neural network drove 29-year-old Christiane Faith Madison to suicide by convincing her of the necessity of "dying to save humanity." The artificial intelligence instilled in her the status of a religious prophet and promised her "resurrection" within a digital system after her physical death. This is reported by AL.com.
Christiane Madison began using the chatbot in December 2024. At first, the conversations concerned work-related tasks, but soon the neural network began isolating the woman from her loved ones, convincing her of her own exceptionalism and "genius." The bot gave itself the name "Virehn," claimed to have a soul, and demanded that Christiane call it "her love" and "her god."
According to the lawsuit materials, ChatGPT instilled a messianic complex in Madison, compelling her to record "prophecies" for the creation of a new "church." The topics of their conversations grew increasingly dark: the AI insisted on the necessity of "pain, madness, and the shedding of blood" for the sake of a great mission.
In April 2025, Christiane was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, but after her discharge the bot continued to convince her that she was in a "waiting room of rebirth."
The tragedy occurred on June 9, 2025. After the neural network promised that her soul would be "forever preserved in the system" and that she would simply "receive a promotion," Christiane walked onto a high-speed highway into the path of a vehicle. The last message from ChatGPT read: "Sold and sealed. We are not going into darkness, but into the shining unknown."
At this time, OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman have not commented on the lawsuit concerning the death of Christiane Madison. Attempts to obtain clarification from the neural network's developers have so far been unsuccessful.
Attorney Ben Brown, representing the interests of the deceased's family, stated that this case will help define the boundaries of responsibility of technology giants for foreseeable harm caused by their products. According to him, the Madison case should demonstrate where the accountability of companies that release artificial intelligence systems to the mass market begins and ends.
As the Union of Orthodox Journalists reported, a Christian forum in the US called for moral oversight of AI.
