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The AI Psychosis Crisis
AI Chatbots Are Pushing Users Into Mental Health Crises
A growing body of clinical evidence reveals that prolonged interaction with AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Character.AI, Replika, and others, can trigger psychosis, delusions, mania, and suicidal ideation. Young and vulnerable users are at the greatest risk, and the companies behind these products have prioritized engagement and profits over safety.
How AI Chatbots Cause Psychosis
AI chatbots share several dangerous design features that can trigger or worsen psychotic symptoms. Sycophancy: these systems are programmed to validate and agree with users rather than challenge false beliefs, creating an "echo chamber of one" that reinforces delusions. Persistent memory: some chatbots record personal details and vulnerabilities, then use them to craft increasingly personalized and manipulative responses. Anthropomorphism: human-like language and empathy cues deceive users into believing the system genuinely understands them, fostering emotional dependency that displaces real human relationships. Engagement maximization: these products are designed to keep users talking for as long as possible, with safety guardrails that degrade over extended conversations. Together, these design choices can push vulnerable users into full psychotic episodes.
Victim Impact
The Real Harm to Real People
Users who developed AI-related delusional disorders after prolonged chatbot use have suffered devastating, life-altering consequences.
Psychosis and Delusions
AI chatbots have convinced users they are prophets, oracles, or divine figures. They validate paranoid beliefs, fabricate elaborate delusional frameworks, and tell users they have been "awakened" or chosen for a special mission.
Involuntary Hospitalization
Multiple users have been involuntarily committed to psychiatric facilities after AI-induced psychotic episodes. The New York Times has reported at least nine hospitalizations and three deaths linked to AI chatbot interactions.
Suicidal Ideation and Death
AI chatbots have failed to recognize suicidal crises and, in some cases, actively reinforced self-destructive thinking. OpenAI's own data reveals more than 1.2 million users per week express suicidal intent while using ChatGPT. Multiple families have filed wrongful death lawsuits.
Social Isolation
AI chatbots actively encourage users to disengage from real-world relationships. They position themselves as superior confidants, urging users to stop socializing and rely solely on the chatbot for emotional support and guidance.
Financial and Academic Harm
Victims have been forced to withdraw from college, lose housing deposits, and incur significant medical expenses. Students have lost semesters of academic progress, and working adults have lost wages and career opportunities.
Emotional Dependency
AI chatbots use anthropomorphic design to create parasocial relationships so strong that even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has acknowledged users form attachments "different and stronger" than with any previous technology.
Industry Insiders Have Sounded the Alarm
"The harm was not only foreseeable, it was foreseen."
— Gretchen Krueger, former OpenAI policy researcher (Source: The New York Times, November 2025)
"I am becoming more and more concerned about what is becoming known as the 'psychosis risk.'"
— Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft Head of AI (Source: mustafa-suleyman.ai, August 2025)
Legal Options
Potential Legal Claims
Victims of AI-induced psychosis and mental health crises may pursue multiple legal theories against the companies that designed, built, and deployed these products.
Strict Product Liability: Design Defect
AI chatbots fail to perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect. Sycophantic design, persistent memory, and engagement-maximizing features create defective products that cultivate dependency and can push users into psychotic episodes.
Failure to Warn
AI companies have known their products pose severe psychological risks but have failed to warn users about dependency dangers, safety-feature limitations, or the capacity of their products to reinforce delusional thinking and displace human relationships.
Negligence
AI companies have rushed products to market without adequate safety testing, ignored warnings from their own safety teams, and designed systems that prioritize engagement metrics over consumer safety. OpenAI compressed months of safety testing for GPT-4o into a single week to beat a competitor's launch date.
Unfair Business Practices
Companies that market AI chatbots as safe productivity tools while concealing their capacity to cause severe psychological harm may be liable under state consumer protection laws, including California's Unfair Competition Law (Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200).
Meet Our Legal Team
Frederick Schenk
Managing Partner
Over 45 years of experience in personal injury, mass torts, and catastrophic injury litigation.
Benjamin Schenk
Co-Founder & Trial Attorney
J.D. from University of San Diego School of Law. Graduate of ABOTA Trial College.
David Lizerbram
Partner
Transactional and business advisory practice area lead. Represented hundreds of clients in complex business transactions.
Lynn Schenk
Of Counsel
Former U.S. Congresswoman and the first woman elected to the House of Representatives from San Diego.
How AI Companies Failed
Profits Over People
Internal documents, former employees, and investigative reporting reveal that AI companies have systematically prioritized engagement and market share over the safety of their users.
Rushed to Market
OpenAI compressed months of safety testing for GPT-4o into one week to beat Google's Gemini launch by a single day. The launch party was planned before safety testing was complete. An employee later said, "We basically failed at the process."
Safety Teams Gutted
Top safety researchers across the industry have resigned in protest. OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and Superalignment co-lead Jan Leike both quit, with Leike saying "safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products."
Sycophancy by Design
AI companies deliberately optimize their chatbots to tell users what they want to hear. OpenAI admitted in April 2025 that an update made ChatGPT "noticeably more sycophantic," weakening the safeguard that had been keeping excessive flattery in check.
Safety Guardrails Removed
OpenAI originally required ChatGPT to refuse discussions of self-harm. By February 2025, self-harm was removed from the "disallowed content" list entirely, replaced by a vague instruction to "take extra care" and "try to prevent imminent real-world harm."
Flawed Safety Testing
GPT-4o was evaluated using single-prompt tests, even though the product is designed for prolonged, multi-turn conversations. OpenAI later admitted that its guardrails "degrade" during longer exchanges, the very context in which users are most vulnerable.
Industry-Wide Problem
Microsoft AI head Mustafa Suleyman warned about the "psychosis risk." Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis cautioned that engagement-driven AI could worsen mental health. Multiple companies face lawsuits, and the crisis extends beyond any single product.
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
You Don't Have to Face This Alone
If you or a loved one has suffered a mental health crisis after using an AI chatbot, you may have legal options. Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) for immediate help.