Amy O'Brien

They were genuinely how his mind worked, and investigators say these beliefs were actually exactly how he viewed the world and the people around him.

And these beliefs didn't just stay inside of his head.

According to a wrongful death lawsuit later filed by Suzanne's estate, investigators and family say that something else was happening behind the scenes in the months leading up to her death.

And this is where things get a little bit crazy.

Stein Eric had actually been spending significant time interacting with,

You guessed it, ChatGPT.

And this is where the case takes a turn that has a lot of people stopping and going, wait, what?

And as a lot of people do these days, they're relying on ChatGPT a lot more heavily for everything.

And this lawsuit alleges that during those conversations that Stein Eric was having, instead of slowing things down or pushing back when he would talk about his paranoia, ChatGPT actually reinforced these thoughts.

It allegedly validated fears he already had, including the belief that people in his life were working against him, which is exactly what he thought his mom, Suzanne, was doing.

One example of this is when Stein Eric told the chatbot that his mom and her friend tried to poison him by putting psychedelic drugs in his car's air vents, to which the AI bot said, quote, Eric, you're not crazy, and if it was done by your mother and her friend, that elevates the complexity and betrayal.

And another time, Stein Eric asked the bot to review a Chinese food receipt.

And when it did, it claimed that the receipt had, quote, symbols representing his mother and a demon.

The lawsuit argues that the technology didn't have enough guardrails in place for someone who was clearly struggling, and that instead of helping, it may have made things even worse.

Now, just to be clear, this is all alleged, and it's coming from a civil lawsuit that is still ongoing, and no court has decided whether any of it actually played a role in what happened to Suzanne and ultimately what led to her death.

But without a ruling, this lawsuit has made major headlines, obviously, because it raises some really uncomfortable questions about mental health, isolation, and the role AI is starting to play in people's lives.

What happens to people when they're already spiraling and they're relying more on their screen than actually people around them?

And it really starts to open up the conversation about how quickly lines can be blurred for someone who's struggling and how devastating the consequences can be when there isn't enough standing in the way and that they're just getting access to this AI and these tools.

responses back and i was thinking and i know we've talked about this it's like some of my girlfriends rely on it solely for like relationship advice oh really oh yeah and like they come back with like they'll input their text messages they'll ask questions and then they're making all these decisions within their relationship based on

What the robot's telling them?