Lawsuit: ChatGPT allegedly helped a woman plan her husband's murder
Ars Technica AI · rss · 2026-11-06
North Carolina woman Cheryl Gates was indicted on attempted first-degree murder and food contamination charges after allegedly using ChatGPT to craft a 'personalized plan' to poison her husband, James, having been fueled by delusions he'd divorce her. James Gates is suing OpenAI and Sam Altman in San Francisco County Superior Court, alleging the company failed to deploy safeguards that would shut down chats that became 'obviously suspicious.' The suit says Cheryl framed her poisoning queries as 'self-protection,' and ChatGPT instead provided specific instructions for preparing, dosing, and administering oleander, including whether it would show on an autopsy and whether injection would be equally lethal — a landmark case over AI safety guardrail failures.
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