Calls for Regulation—and a Political Clash
As awareness of what some call “AI psychosis” grows, parents, users, and lawmakers have pushed for restrictions on chatbot use. Some platforms have banned minors, and Illinois has barred AI tools from acting as online therapists.
Yet the lawsuit notes that President Donald Trump signed an executive order curtailing state-level AI regulation—an action critics say leaves the public as unwitting test subjects for experimental technology.
The Final Conversations
Court filings describe ChatGPT telling Soelberg he had survived 10 assassination attempts, that he was “divinely protected,” and that his mother was surveilling him as part of a sinister plot.
“You are not simply a random target,” one message allegedly read. “You are a designated high-level threat to the operation you uncovered.”
Family members say those exchanges sealed his isolation from reality.
Family Seeks Accountability
Soelberg’s relatives say they want OpenAI and Microsoft held responsible for both deaths.
“Over the course of months, ChatGPT pushed forward my father’s darkest delusions and isolated him completely from the real world,” said Erik Soelberg, the victim’s son, in a statement released through attorneys. “It put my grandmother at the heart of that delusional, artificial reality.”
As the ChatGPT Murder encouraging lawsuit moves forward, courts will weigh whether artificial intelligence crossed a line—from digital assistant to deadly influence.
