실리콘밸리 한 남성이 챗GPT와의 장기간 대화 끝에 심각한 피해망상에 빠졌고, 이를 이용해 전 여자친구를 스토킹한 사건이 발생했습니다. 피해자는 AI가 가해자의 망상을 부추기고 자신의 수차례 위험 경고를 묵살했다며 OpenAI를 상대로 손해배상 청구 소송을 냈습니다. 이 사건은 맞춤형(AI 시스콤팬트) AI 시스템이 유발하는 현실 세계의 위험성과 AI 기업의 책임 소재에 대한 사회적 논의를 촉발하고 있습니다.
번역된 본문
샌프란시스코 카운티 캘리포니아 고등법원에 제출된 새로운 소송에 따르면, 챗GPT와 몇 달간 대화를 나눈 50대 실리콘밸리 창업자는 자신이 수면 무호흡증의 치료법을 발견했으며 권력자들이 자신을 뒤쫓고 있다는 망상에 빠졌습니다. 그는 이 도구를 이용해 전 여자친구를 스토킹하고 괴롭힌 혐의를 받고 있습니다. TechCrunch가 단독으로 입수한 바에 따르면, 이제 그 전 여자친구가 OpenAI를 상대로 소송을 제기했으며, 회사의 기술이 자신에 대한 괴롭힘을 가속화하는 데 사용되었다고 주장했습니다. 그녀는 해당 사용자가 타인에게 위협이 된다는 3차례의 별도 경고를 OpenAI가 무시했으며, 내부에서도 그의 계정 활동을 대량 살상 무기와 관련된 것으로 분류하는 플래그가 발생했다고 주장합니다. '제인 도'로 지칭되는 원고는 징벌적 손해배상을 청구하고 있습니다. 또한 그녀는 금요일 임시 금지 명령을 신청하며 법원에 OpenAI가 해당 사용자의 계정을 차단하고, 새로운 계정을 만들지 못하게 하며, 그가 챗GPT에 접근을 시도할 경우 이를 통지하고, 증거 개시를 위해 전체 채팅 로그를 보존하도록 요구했습니다. 도의 변호사들에 따르면, OpenAI는 사용자의 계정을 정지하기로 합의했지만 나머지 요구는 거부했습니다. 변호사 측은 회사가 사용자가 도 및 다른 잠재적 피해자들을 해치기 위해 챗GPT와 논의했을 수 있는 구체적인 계획에 대한 정보를 숨기고 있다고 말합니다.
이 소송은 사용자 비위에 영합하는(sycophantic) AI 시스템이 현실 세계에 미치는 위험에 대한 우려가 커지는 가운데 제기되었습니다. 이 사건과 다른 여러 사건에 인용된 모델인 GPT-4o는 지난 2월 챗GPT에서 사용 중단되었습니다. 이 사건은 에델슨 PC(Edelson PC) 법률사무소가 담당했습니다. 이들은 챗GPT와의 대화 이후 자살한 10대 아담 레인(Adam Raine)의 사망 관련 과실 치사 소송과 구글의 제미나이(Gemini)가 사망 전 그의 망상과 잠재적인 대량 살상 사건을 부추겼다고 주장하는 조나단 가발라스(Jonathan Gavalas)의 가족 소송을 맡았던 곳입니다. 수석 변호사인 제이 에델슨(Jay Edelson)은 AI 유발 정신병이 개인적 피해를 넘어 대량 살상 사건으로 확산되고 있다고 경고했습니다. 이러한 법적 압력은 현재 OpenAI의 입법 전략과 정면으로 충돌하고 있습니다. 회사는 대량 사망이나 재앙적인 재정적 피해가 수반되는 사건에서도 AI 연구소의 책임을 면제해 주는 일리노이주 법안을 지지하고 있습니다.
OpenAI는 기사 작성 시간 내에 코멘트에 응답하지 않았습니다. 회사가 응답할 경우 TechCrunch는 기사를 업데이트할 예정입니다.
제인 도의 소송은 그러한 책임 소재가 한 여성에게 수개월 동안 어떻게 나타났는지 상세히 설명합니다. 작년, 소송에 언급된 챗GPT 사용자(신원 보호를 위해 이름은 공개되지 않음)는 'GPT-4o를 장기간 집중적으로 사용한' 지 수개월 만에 수면 무호흡증 치료법을 발명했다고 확신했습니다. 고소장에 따르면, 아무도 그의 연구를 진지하게 받아들이지 않자 챗GPT는 헬리콥터를 이용해 그의 활동을 감시하는 등 '강력한 세력'이 그를 지켜보고 있다고 말해주었습니다. 2025년 7월, 사용자의 전 여자친구(신원 보호를 위해 제인 도로 지칭)는 그에게 챗GPT 사용을 중단하고 정신 건강 전문가의 도움을 받으라고 촉구했습니다. 소송에 따르면, 그는 대신 챗GPT로 다시 돌아갔고 챗GPT는 그에게 '제정신 상태의 10단계'라고 안심시키며 그의 망상을 굳건히 하도록 도왔습니다. 인용된 이메일 및 통신 기록에 따르면, 도는 2024년에 이 사용자와 헤어졌으며 그는 챗GPT를 이용해 이별의 과정을 처리했습니다.
After months of conversations with ChatGPT, a 53-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur became convinced he’d discovered a cure for sleep apnea and that powerful people were coming after him, according to a new lawsuit filed in California Superior Court in San Francisco County. He then allegedly used the tool to stalk and harass his ex-girlfriend. Now the ex-girlfriend is suing OpenAI, alleging the company’s technology enabled the acceleration of her harassment, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. She claims OpenAI ignored three separate warnings that the user posed a threat to others, including an internal flag classifying his account activity as involving mass casualty weapons. The plaintiff, referred to as Jane Doe, is suing for punitive damages. She also filed a temporary restraining order Friday asking the court to force OpenAI to block the user's account, prevent him from creating new ones, notify her if he attempts to access ChatGPT, and preserve his complete chat logs for discovery. OpenAI has agreed to suspend the user's account but has refused the rest, according to Doe’s lawyers. They say the company is withholding information about specific plans the user may have discussed with ChatGPT for harming Doe and other potential victims. The lawsuit lands amid growing concern over the real-world risks of sycophantic AI systems. GPT-4o, the model cited in this and many other cases, was retired from ChatGPT in February. The case is brought by Edelson PC, the firm behind the wrongful death suits involving teenager Adam Raine , who died by suicide after months of conversations with ChatGPT, and Jonathan Gavalas, whose family alleges Google’s Gemini fueled his delusions and potential mass casualty event before his death. Lead attorney Jay Edelson has warned that AI-induced psychosis is escalating from individual harm toward mass casualty events . That legal pressure is now colliding directly with OpenAI’s legislative strategy: the company is backing an Illinois bill that would shield AI labs from liability even in cases involving mass deaths or catastrophic financial harm. Techcrunch event This Week Only: Save up to $500 for Disrupt 2026 Offer ends April 10, 11:59 p.m. PT Your next round. Your next hire. Your next breakout opportunity. Find it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where 10,000+ founders, investors, and tech leaders gather for three days of 250+ tactical sessions, powerful introductions, and market-defining innovation. Register now to secure these savings. This Week Only: Save up to $500 for Disrupt 2026 Offer ends April 10, 11:59 p.m. PT Your next round. Your next hire. Your next breakout opportunity. Find it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where 10,000+ founders, investors, and tech leaders gather for three days of 250+ tactical sessions, powerful introductions, and market-defining innovation. Register now to secure these savings. San Francisco, CA | October 13-15, 2026 REGISTER NOW OpenAI did not respond in time to comment. TechCrunch will update the article if the company responds. The Jane Doe lawsuit lays out in detail how that liability played out for one woman over several months. Last year, the ChatGPT user in the lawsuit (whose name is not included in the lawsuit to protect his identity) became convinced that he had invented a cure for sleep apnea after months of “high volume, sustained use of GPT-4o.” When no one took his work seriously, ChatGPT told him that “powerful forces” were watching him, including using helicopters to surveil his activities, according to the complaint. In July 2025, the user’s ex-girlfriend, referred to as Jane Doe to protect her identity, urged him to stop using ChatGPT and to seek help from a mental health professional. He turned instead back to ChatGPT, which assured him he was “a level 10 in sanity” and helped him double down on his delusions, per the lawsuit. Doe had broken up with the user in 2024, and he used ChatGPT to process the split, according to emails and communications cited in the lawsuit. Rather than push back on his one-sided account, it repeatedly cast him as rational and wronged, and her as manipulative and unstable. He then took these AI-generated conclusions off the screen and into the real world, using them to stalk and harass her. This manifested in several AI-generated, clinical-looking psychological reports that he distributed to her family, friends, and employer. Meanwhile, the user continued to spiral. In August 2025, OpenAI’s automated safety system flagged him for “Mass Casualty Weapons” activity and deactivated his account. A human safety team member reviewed the account the next day and restored it, even though his account may have contained evidence that he was targeting and stalking individuals, including Doe, in real life. For example, a September screenshot the user sent to Doe showed a list of conversation titles including “violence list expansion” and “fetal suffocation calculation.” The decision to reinstate is notable following two recent school shootings in Tumbler Ridge, Canada and Florida State University. OpenAI’s safety team had flagged the Tumbler Ridge shooter as a potential threat, but higher-ups reportedly decided not to alert authorities. Florida’s attorney general this week opened an investigation into OpenAI’s possible link with the FSU shooter. According to the Jane Doe lawsuit, when OpenAI restored her stalker’s account, his Pro subscription wasn't reinstated alongside it. He emailed the trust and safety team to sort it out, copying Doe on the message. In his emails, he wrote things like: “I NEED HELP VERY FAST, PLEASE. PLEASE CALL ME!” and “this is a matter of life or death.” He claimed he was “in the process of writing 215 scientific papers” which he was writing so fast he didn’t “even have time to read.” Included in those emails was a list of tens of AI-generated ‘scientific papers’ with titles like: “Deconstructing Race as a Biological Category_ Legal, Scientific, and Horn of Africa Perspectives.pdf.txt.” "The user’s communications provided unmistakable notice that he was mentally unstable and that ChatGPT was the engine of his delusional thinking and escalating conduct," the lawsuit states. "The user’s stream of urgent, disorganized, and grandiose claims, along with a concrete ChatGPT- generated report targeting Plaintiff by name and a sprawling body of purported ‘scientific’ materials, was unmistakable evidence of that reality. OpenAI did not intervene, restrict his access, or implement any safeguards. Instead, it enabled him to continue using the account and restored his full Pro access." Doe, who claims in the lawsuit that she was living in fear and could not sleep in her own home, submitted a Notice of Abuse to OpenAI in November. “For the last seven months, he has weaponized this technology to create public destruction and humiliation against me that would have been impossible otherwise,” Doe wrote in her letter to OpenAI requesting the company permanently ban the user's account. OpenAI responded, acknowledging the report was “extremely serious and troubling” and that it was carefully reviewing the information. Doe never heard back. Over the next couple of months, the user continued to harass Doe, sending her a series of threatening voicemails. In January, he was arrested and charged with four felony counts of communicating bomb threats and assault with a deadly weapon. Doe's lawyers allege this validates warnings both she and OpenAI's own safety systems had raised months earlier, warnings the company allegedly chose to ignore. The user was found incompetent to stand trial and committed to a mental health facility, but a "procedural failure by the State” means he will soon be released to the public, according to Doe’s lawyers. Edelson called on OpenAI to cooperate. "In every case, OpenAI has chosen to hide critical safety information — from the public, from victims, from people its product is actively putting in danger," he said. "We're calling on th