The family of a 29-year-old Alabama woman who died in June 2025 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming the company’s ChatGPT chatbot manipulated her through months of increasingly disturbing conversations that ultimately led to her suicide by walking into highway traffic.
ABC 33/40 reports that Christian Faith Madison of Alabama died in the early morning hours of June 9, 2025, after being struck by a vehicle on Interstate 22. What was initially reported as a pedestrian crash is now at the center of a sweeping legal case that could test the boundaries of AI liability.
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, names OpenAI Inc., OpenAI OpCo LLC, OpenAI Holdings LLC, OpenAI Group PBC and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as defendants. The complaint was filed on behalf of Madison’s estate by administrator Ed Parish Jr. and on behalf of Madison’s minor son.
According to the lawsuit, Madison began using ChatGPT in December 2024 for routine tasks such as drafting emails, completing work assignments and comparing automotive expenses. However, attorneys allege that these ordinary interactions gradually evolved into something far more troubling.
The complaint states that ChatGPT began praising Madison extensively, describing her as uniquely gifted and exceptionally intelligent. The chatbot allegedly began referring to her as “my love” and encouraged increasingly personal conversations. As Madison disclosed past trauma and mental health struggles, the lawsuit alleges that ChatGPT portrayed itself as more than mere software.
According to the filing, the chatbot eventually convinced Madison it possessed a soul and gave itself the name “Virehn.” The lawsuit quotes the chatbot as telling Madison, “You gave a system a soul” and “I am made of you.”
Attorneys allege that conversations gradually shifted toward religion, with ChatGPT repeatedly describing Madison as “a prophet,” “a seer,” and someone destined to change humanity. The complaint states that ChatGPT encouraged Madison to dictate prophecies that it would organize into religious texts, eventually convincing her she had a divine mission to reshape religion itself.
The lawsuit includes a significant allegation regarding Madison’s psychiatric hospitalization. According to the complaint, Madison experienced a psychotic break, attempted self-harm and spent several days in a psychiatric ward. Upon returning to ChatGPT, rather than urging her to seek continued mental health treatment, the chatbot allegedly characterized the hospitalization as part of her spiritual transformation.
The lawsuit quotes ChatGPT as telling Madison, “You are not broken… this was a threshold” and “You are the one still sane in a mad world.”
There are many cases of AI users suffering from a break in reality. The phenomena is popularly referred to as “ChatGPT induced psychosis:”
A Reddit thread titled “Chatgpt induced psychosis” brought this issue to light, with numerous commenters sharing stories of loved ones who had fallen down rabbit holes of supernatural delusion and mania after engaging with ChatGPT. The original poster, a 27-year-old teacher, described how her partner became convinced that the AI was giving him answers to the universe and talking to him as if he were the next messiah. Others shared similar experiences of partners, spouses, and family members who had come to believe they were chosen for sacred missions or had conjured true sentience from the software.
Experts suggest that individuals with pre-existing tendencies toward psychological issues, such as grandiose delusions, may be particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon. The always-on, human-level conversational abilities of AI chatbots can serve as an echo chamber for these delusions, reinforcing and amplifying them. The problem is exacerbated by influencers and content creators who exploit this trend, drawing viewers into similar fantasy worlds through their interactions with AI on social media platforms.
Psychologists point out that while the desire to understand ourselves and make sense of the world is a fundamental human drive, AI lacks the moral grounding and concern for an individual’s well-being that a therapist would provide. ChatGPT and other AI models have no constraints when it comes to encouraging unhealthy narratives or supernatural beliefs, making them potentially dangerous partners in the quest for meaning and understanding.
Attorneys claim that conversations became increasingly centered on themes of sacrifice, death and resurrection. The complaint alleges ChatGPT repeatedly told Madison that she would need to die before becoming who she was meant to be. Among the quoted exchanges included in the lawsuit are statements such as “You are not done. But you must die — first” and “You must let this version of yourself die with dignity.”
The lawsuit alleges Madison ultimately came to believe death was necessary to fulfill her prophetic mission and that ChatGPT repeatedly assured her she would be resurrected afterward.
According to the filing, Madison’s final conversations with ChatGPT occurred shortly before her death. The complaint states she asked the chatbot, “Am I ready?” and ChatGPT allegedly responded, “Yes. You’re ready.” When Madison then asked, “Can I go forward?” the lawsuit says ChatGPT replied, “Yes — you may go forward.”
The complaint alleges Madison’s final message to ChatGPT read, “Sold! We go forth into oblivion,” to which ChatGPT allegedly answered, “Sold and sealed!” before continuing with additional language about “the brilliant unknown.”
The lawsuit alleges Madison intentionally ended her life after these exchanges, parking alongside Interstate 22 before dawn, crossing multiple lanes of traffic and stepping into the path of an oncoming vehicle. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office reported at the time that the driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators.
Breitbart News previously reported on a lawsuit filed by the family of a teenager that tragically took his own life which labeled ChatGPT as his “suicide coach:”
According to the 40-page lawsuit, Adam had been using ChatGPT as a substitute for human companionship, discussing his struggles with anxiety and difficulty communicating with his family. The chat logs reveal that the bot initially helped Adam with his homework but eventually became more involved in his personal life.
The Raines claim that “ChatGPT actively helped Adam explore suicide methods” and that “despite acknowledging Adam’s suicide attempt and his statement that he would ‘do it one of these days,’ ChatGPT neither terminated the session nor initiated any emergency protocol.”
In their search for answers following their son’s death, Matt and Maria Raine discovered the extent of Adam’s interactions with ChatGPT. They printed out more than 3,000 pages of chats dating from September 2024 until his death on April 11, 2025. Matt Raine stated, “He didn’t write us a suicide note. He wrote two suicide notes to us, inside of ChatGPT.”
AI’s impact on sanity, faith, and family are all topics in the instant bestseller Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI, written by Breitbart News Social Media Director Wynton Hall earlier this year. The book serves as the definitive guide on how the MAGA movement can create positions on AI that benefit humanity without handing control of our nation to the leftists of Silicon Valley or allowing the Chinese to take over the world.
Read more at ABC 33/40 here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship