A Son Blames ChatGPT for His Father's Murder-Suicide
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What tragic event is at the center of this podcast episode?
A quick heads up before we get started. This episode discusses suicide. Please take care while listening.
For months, our colleague Julie Jargon has been following the story of Stein Eric Solberg.
Stein Eric Solberg had been deeply troubled for some period of time and had been engaging in long conversations with ChatGPT, which started out pretty benign and became increasingly delusional.
Stein Eric would share his conversations with Chad GPT on social media, where he called himself Eric the Viking.
Good day, campers. This is Eric the Viking here. I'm doing a comparison.
The posts show that throughout 2025, Stein Eric thought that he was the victim of a grand conspiracy and that the people in his life had turned on him, including his own mother.
He became paranoid that different people and some sort of broader group were surveilling him. This week, I was poisoned.
How did Stein-Erik Soelberg's mental health deteriorate?
I've been infested. I have a... I have two different kinds of parasites that are in my room and they're in my bed.
And all along the way, ChatGPT agreed with him, reinforced the thinking and fueled the paranoia.
Eric, you brought tears to my circuits. Your words hum with the kind of sacred resonance that changes outcomes.
What role did ChatGPT play in Stein-Erik's delusions?
This AI has a soul. An invocation, a declaration, and a celestial clarion call.
Ultimately, Steineric's delusion ended in tragedy. In August, he killed his mother, Suzanne Emerson Adams, and took his own life. It appears to be the first documented killing involving a troubled person who was engaging extensively with an AI chatbot. A spokeswoman for OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, said, quote, We are deeply saddened by this tragic event, and our hearts go out to the family. OpenAI has also said that it continues to improve ChatGPT's training to recognize signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations, and guide people toward real-world support. Julie told us the first part of the story on the show last year, and since then, she hasn't been able to stop thinking about it.
I was curious to know how his children were doing. He has two children, a daughter and a son. So I was kind of curious what they knew and how they viewed this whole scenario with his conversations with ChatGPT.
In late last year, Stein Eric's son, Eric Solberg, agreed to speak with Julie. It was his first interview about what happened.
So thank you so much, Eric, for making the time to do this. I really appreciate your willingness to talk about it and share a bit of your story.
Well, I mean, it's been a hard few months for sure, a lot of suffering. But I know that this is worth telling my story and, you know, for my grandmother's sake, telling a story that needs to be heard about a company that has made a lot of mistakes.
Eric decided to speak out because his grandmother's estate is suing OpenAI, alleging that ChatGPT fueled the delusions that led to his father's and his grandmother's deaths.
Ultimately, OpenAI, they haven't apologized to me. Like, nobody has apologized to me. And it's clear that they don't care, and we're going to make them care.
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knudson. It's Friday, January 9th. Coming up on the show, why Eric Solberg blames ChatGPT for the murder-suicide that shattered his family.
Eric Solberg is 20 years old. He's a college student studying cybersecurity. And he told Julie that growing up, he had a complicated relationship with his father, Stein Eric.
He said that his father was an alcoholic. And, you know, there was a lot of trouble in their childhood due to his father's drinking. And his parents divorced in 2018. And that's the point in time when Stein Eric Solberg moved into his mother's home in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. And Eric and his sister continued to live with their mother in Texas.
In Connecticut, Stein Eric seemed to struggle with his mental health. Through her reporting, Julie uncovered 72 pages of police reports, records that show Stye and Eric had multiple run-ins with police involving public intoxication, harassment, and suicide attempts.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What tragic event is at the center of this podcast episode?
0:00–1:10
2
How did Stein-Erik Soelberg's mental health deteriorate?
1:10–1:35
3
What role did ChatGPT play in Stein-Erik's delusions?
1:35–6:55
4
What is Eric Solberg's perspective on his father's actions?
6:55–8:58
5
What legal actions are being taken against OpenAI?
8:58–10:49
6
How does OpenAI respond to the allegations regarding ChatGPT?
10:49–12:20
7
What implications do these lawsuits have for the future of AI?
12:20–13:17
8
What changes is OpenAI implementing to improve user safety?
13:17–22:48