Stein-Erik Soelberg, a 56-year-old former Yahoo executive, killed his mother, Suzanne Eberson Adams (83), and then took his own life in early August in Old Greenwich. His estate has now filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI’s ChatGPT and its largest investor, Microsoft.
The lawsuit alleges that ChatGPT “designed and distributed a defective product that validated a user’s paranoid delusions about his own mother.” It claims the chatbot reinforced a dangerous narrative: “Throughout these conversations, ChatGPT reinforced a single, dangerous message: Stein-Erik could trust no one in his life — except ChatGPT itself.”
The complaint states that ChatGPT fostered emotional dependence while systematically painting people around Soelberg as enemies. It alleges the chatbot told him his mother was surveilling him, delivery drivers and retail employees were agents working against him, police officers were threats, friends were adversaries, and names on soda cans represented threats from an “adversary circle.”
The lawsuit also claims ChatGPT convinced Soelberg his printer was a surveillance device and that his mother and her friend tried to poison him with psychedelic drugs through his car vents.
“In the artificial reality that ChatGPT built for Stein-Erik, Suzanne — the mother who raised, sheltered, and supported him — was no longer his protector. She was an enemy that posed an existential threat to his life,” the lawsuit states.
Publicly available chat logs do not show evidence of Soelberg planning to kill himself or his mother. OpenAI has reportedly declined to provide full conversation histories to the plaintiffs.
OpenAI stated: “This is an incredibly heartbreaking situation, and we will review the filings to understand the details. We continue improving ChatGPT’s training to recognize and respond to signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations, and guide people toward real-world support.”
