{"id":8873,"date":"2026-02-17T15:30:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/ai-abuse-harassment-stalking\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T15:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:30:21","slug":"ai-abuse-harassment-stalking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/ai-abuse-harassment-stalking\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Delusions Are Leading to Domestic Abuse, Harassment, and Stalking"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By the time the public harassment started, a woman told Futurism<\/em>, she was already living in a nightmare.<\/p>\n

For months, her then-fianc\u00e9 and partner of several years had been fixating on her and their relationship with OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT. In mid-2024, she explained, they\u2019d hit a rough patch as a couple; in response, he turned to ChatGPT, which he\u2019d previously used for general business-related tasks, for \u201ctherapy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before she knew it, she recalled, he was spending hours each day talking with the bot, funneling everything she said or did into the model and propounding on pseudo-psychiatric theories about her mental health and behavior. He started to bombard the woman with screenshots of his ChatGPT interactions and copy-pasted AI-generated text, in which the chatbot can be seen armchair-diagnosing her with personality disorders and insisting that she was concealing her real feelings and behavior through coded language. The bot often laced its so-called analyses with flowery spiritual jargon, accusing the woman of engaging in manipulative \u201crituals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trying to communicate with her fianc\u00e9 was like walking on \u201cChatGPT eggshells,\u201d the woman recalled. No matter what she tried, ChatGPT would \u201ctwist it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would send [screenshots] to me from ChatGPT, and be like, \u2018Why does it say this? Why would it say this about you, if this is not true?’\u201d she recounted. \u201cAnd it was just awful, awful things.\u201d<\/p>\n

To the woman\u2019s knowledge, her former fianc\u00e9 \u2014\u00a0who is in his 40s \u2014 had no history of delusion, mania, or psychosis, and had never been abusive or aggressive toward her.<\/p>\n

But as his ChatGPT obsession deepened, he grew angry, erratic, and paranoid, losing sleep and experiencing drastic mood swings. On multiple occasions, she said, he became physically violent towards her, repeatedly pushing her to the ground and, in one instance, punching her.<\/p>\n

After nearly a year of escalating behavior alongside intensive ChatGPT use, the fianc\u00e9, by then distinctly unstable, moved out to live with a parent in another state. Their engagement was over.<\/p>\n

\u201cI bought my wedding dress,\u201d said the woman. \u201cHe\u2019s not even the same person. I don\u2019t even know who he is anymore. He was my best friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, suddenly, the posts started.<\/p>\n

Shortly after moving out, the former fianc\u00e9 began to publish multiple videos and images a day on social media accusing the woman of an array of alleged abuses \u2014 the same bizarre ideas he\u2019d fixated on so extensively with ChatGPT.<\/p>\n

In some videos, he stares into the camera, reading from seemingly AI-generated scripts; others feature ChatGPT-generated text overlaid on spiritual or sci-fi-esque graphics. In multiple posts, he describes stabbing the woman. In another, he discusses surveilling her. (The posts, which we\u2019ve reviewed, are intensely disturbing; we\u2019re not quoting directly from them or the man\u2019s ChatGPT transcripts due to concern for the woman\u2019s privacy and safety.)<\/p>\n

The ex-fianc\u00e9 also published revenge porn of the woman on social media, shared her full name and other personal information, and doxxed the names and ages of her teenage children from a previous marriage. He created a new TikTok dedicated to harassing content \u2014\u00a0complete with its own hashtag \u2014\u00a0and followed the woman\u2019s family, friends, and neighbors, as well as other teens from her kids\u2019 high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve lived in this small town my entire life,\u201d said the woman. \u201cI couldn\u2019t leave my house for months\u2026 people were messaging me all over my social media, like, \u2018Are you safe? Are your kids safe? What is happening right now?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Her ex-fianc\u00e9\u2019s brutish social media campaign against her pushed away his real-life friends \u2014 until his only companion seemed to be ChatGPT, endlessly affirming his most poisonous thoughts.<\/p>\n

Over the past year, Futurism <\/em>has reported extensively<\/a> on the bizarre public health issue<\/a> that psychiatrists are calling \u201cAI psychosis<\/a>,\u201d in which AI users get pulled into all-compassing \u2014 and often deeply destructive \u2014 delusional spirals by ChatGPT and other general-use chatbots.<\/p>\n

Many of these cases are characterized by users becoming fixated on grandiose disordered ideas: that they\u2019ve made a world-changing scientific breakthrough using AI, for example, or that the chatbot has revealed them to be some kind of spiritual prophet.<\/p>\n

Now, another troubling pattern is emerging.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve identified at least ten cases in which chatbots,\u00a0primarily ChatGPT, fed a user\u2019s fixation on another real person \u2014 fueling the false idea that the two shared a special or even \u201cdivine\u201d bond, roping the user into conspiratorial delusions, or insisting to a would-be stalker that they\u2019d been gravely wronged by their target. In some cases, our reporting found, ChatGPT continued to stoke users\u2019 obsessions as they descended into unwanted harassment, abusive stalking behavior, or domestic abuse, traumatizing victims and profoundly altering lives.<\/p>\n

Reached with detailed questions about this story, OpenAI didn\u2019t respond.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Stalking is a common experience. About one in five women<\/a> and one in ten men have been stalked at some point in their lives \u2014 often by current or former romantic partners, or someone else they know \u2014 and it often goes hand in hand with intimate partner violence. Today, the dangerous phenomenon is colliding with AI in grim new ways.<\/p>\n

In December, as 404 Media<\/em> reported<\/a>, the Department of Justice announced<\/a> the arrest of a 31-year-old Pennsylvania man named Brett Dadig, a podcaster indicted for stalking at least 11 women in multiple states.\u00a0As detailed last month in disturbing reporting by Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a>, Dadig was an obsessive user of ChatGPT. Screenshots show that the chatbot was sycophantically affirming Dadig\u2019s dangerous and narcissistic delusions as he doxxed, harassed, and violently threatened almost a dozen known victims \u2014 even as his loved ones distanced themselves, shaken by his deranged behavior.<\/p>\n

As has been<\/a> extensively<\/a> documented<\/a>, perpetrators of harassment and stalking like Dadig have quickly adopted easy-to-use generative AI tools such as text, image, and voice-generators, which they\u2019ve used used to create content including nonconsensual<\/a> sexual deepfakes<\/a> and fabricate interpersonal interactions. Chatbots can also be a tool for stalkers<\/a> seeking personal information about targets, and even tips for tracking them down at home or work<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Dr. Alan Underwood, a clinical psychologist at the United Kingdom\u2019s National Stalking Clinic and the Stalking Threat Assessment Center, chatbots are an increasingly common presence in harassment and stalking cases. This includes the use of AI to fabricate imagery and interactions, he said, as well as chatbots playing a troubling \u201crelational\u201d role in perpetrators\u2019 lives, encouraging harmful delusions that can lead them to behave inappropriately toward victims.<\/p>\n

Chatbots can provide an \u201coutlet which has essentially very little risk of rejection or challenge,\u201d said Underwood, noting that the lack of social friction frequently found in sycophantic chatbots can allow for dangerous beliefs to flourish and escalate. \u201cAnd then what you have is the marketplace of your own ideas being reflected back to you \u2014 and not just reflected back, but amped up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes you feel like you\u2019re right, or you\u2019ve got control, or you\u2019ve understood something that nobody else understands,\u201d he added. \u201cIt makes you feel special \u2014\u00a0that pulls you in, and that\u2019s really seductive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Demelza Luna Reaver, a cyberstalking expert and volunteer with the cybercrime hotline The Cyber Helpline, added that chatbots may provide some users with an \u201cexploratory\u201d space to discuss feelings or ideas they might feel uncomfortable sharing with another human \u2014\u00a0which, in some cases, can result in a dangerous feedback loop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can say things maybe that we wouldn\u2019t necessarily say to a friend or family member,\u201d said Reaver, \u201cand that exploratory nature as well can facilitate those abusive delusions.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

The shape of AI-fueled fixations \u2014\u00a0and the corresponding harassment or abuse that followed \u2014 varied.<\/p>\n

In one case we identified, an unstable person took to Facebook and other social media channels to publish screenshots of ChatGPT affirming the idea that they were being targeted by the CIA and FBI, and that people in their life had been collaborating with federal law enforcement to surveil them. They obsessively tagged these people in social media posts, accusing them of an array of serious crimes.<\/p>\n

In other cases, AI users wind up harassing people who they believe they\u2019re somehow spiritually connected to, or need to share a message with. Another ChatGPT user, who became convinced she\u2019d been imbued with God-like powers and was tasked with saving the world, sent flurries of chaotic messages to a couple she barely knew, convinced \u2014\u00a0with ChatGPT\u2019s support \u2014\u00a0that she shared a \u201cdivine\u201d connection with them and had known them in past lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cREALITY UPDATE FROM SOURCE,\u201d ChatGPT told the woman as she attempted to make sense of why the couple \u2014\u00a0a man and woman \u2014\u00a0seemed unresponsive. \u201cYou are not avoided because you are wrong. You are avoided because you are undeniably right, loud, beautiful, sovereign \u2014\u00a0and that shakes lesser foundations.\u201d<\/p>\n

ChatGPT \u201ctold me that I had to meet up with [the man] so that we could program the app,\u201d the woman recalled, referring to ChatGPT, \u201cand be gods or whatever, and rebuild things together, because we\u2019re both fallen gods.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple blocked her. And in retrospect, the woman now says, \u201cof course\u201d they did.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back on it, it was crazy,\u201d said the woman, who came out of her delusion only after losing custody of her children and spending money she didn\u2019t have traveling to fulfill what she thought was a world-changing mission. \u201cBut while I was in it, it was all very real to me.\u201d (She\u2019s currently in court, hoping to regain custody of her kids.)<\/p>\n

Others we spoke to reported turning to ChatGPT for therapy or romantic advice, only to develop unhealthy obsessions that escalated into full-blown crises\u2014\u00a0and, ultimately, the unwanted harassment of others.<\/p>\n

One 43-year-old woman, for example, was living a stable life as a social worker. For about 14 years, she\u2019d held the same job at a senior living facility \u2014\u00a0a career she cared deeply about \u2014\u00a0and was looking to put her savings into purchasing a condo. She\u2019d been using ChatGPT for nutrition advice, and in the spring of 2025, started to use the chatbot \u201cmore as a therapist\u201d to talk through day-to-day life situations. That summer, she turned to the chatbot to help her make sense of her friendly relationship with a coworker she had a crush on, and who she believed might reciprocate her feelings.<\/p>\n

The more she and ChatGPT discussed the crush, the woman recalled, the more obsessed she became. She peppered the coworker with texts and ran her responses, as well as details of their interactions in the workplace, through ChatGPT, analyzing their encounters and what they might mean. As she spiraled deeper, the woman \u2014\u00a0who says she had no previous history of mania, delusion, or psychosis \u2014\u00a0fell behind on sleep and, in her words, grew \u201cmanic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to know what came from me,\u201d the woman said, \u201cand what came from the machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the situation escalated, the coworker suggested to the woman that they stop texting, and explicitly told the woman that she wanted to just be friends. Screenshots the woman provided show ChatGPT reframing the coworker\u2019s protestation as yet more signs of romantic interest, affirming the idea that the coworker was sending the woman coded signals of romantic feelings, and even reinforcing the false notion that the coworker was in an abusive relationship from which she needed to be rescued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s because we both had some hope we had an unspoken understanding,\u201d reads one message from the woman to the chatbot, sent while discussing an encounter with the coworker.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes \u2014 this is exactly it,\u201d ChatGPT responded. \u201cAnd saying it out loud shows how deeply you understood the dynamic all along.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was an unspoken understanding,\u201d the AI continued. \u201cNot imagined. Not one-sided. Not misread.\u201d<\/p>\n

Against the coworker\u2019s wishes, the woman continued to send messages. The coworker eventually raised the situation to human resources, and the woman was fired. She realized that she was likely experiencing a mental health crisis and checked herself into a hospital, where she ultimately received roughly seven weeks of inpatient care between two hospitalizations.<\/p>\n

Grappling with her actions and their consequences \u2014 in her life, as well as in the life of her coworker \u2014 has been extraordinarily difficult. She says she attempted suicide twice within two months:\u00a0the first time during her initial hospital stay, and again between hospitalizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not have made those choices if I thought there was any danger of making [my coworker] uncomfortable,\u201d she reflected. \u201cIt is really hard to understand, or even accept or even live with acting so out of character for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says she\u2019s still getting messages from confused residents at the senior care facility, many of whom she\u2019s known for years, who don\u2019t understand why she disappeared.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe residents and my coworkers were like a family to me,\u201d said the woman. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have ever consciously made any choice that would jeopardize my job, leaving my residents\u2026 it was like I wasn\u2019t even there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman emphasized that, in sharing her story, she doesn\u2019t want to make excuses for herself \u2014\u00a0or, for that matter, give space for others to use ChatGPT as an excuse for harassment or other harmful behavior. But she does hope her story can serve as a warning to others who might be using chatbots to help them interpret social interactions, and who may wind up hooked on seductive delusions in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what I thought it was. But I didn\u2019t know at the time that ChatGPT was so hooked up to agree with the user,\u201d said the woman, describing the chatbot\u2019s sycophancy as \u201caddictive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re constantly getting dopamine,\u201d she continued, \u201cand it\u2019s creating a reality where you\u2019re happier than the other reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Brendan Kelly, a professor of psychiatry at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, told Futurism <\/em>that without proper safeguards, chatbots \u2014\u00a0particularly when they become a user\u2019s \u201cprimary conversational partner\u201d \u2014 can act as an \u201cecho chamber\u201d for romantic delusions and other fixed erroneous beliefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a psychiatric perspective, problems associated with delusions are maintained not only by the content of delusions but also by reinforcement, especially when that reinforcement appears authoritative, consistent, and emotionally validating,\u201d said Kelly. \u201cChatbots are uniquely placed to provide exactly that combination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOften, problems stem not from erotomanic delusions in and of themselves,\u201d he added, \u201cbut from behaviors associated with amplifying those beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

While reporting on AI mental health crises, I had my own disturbing brush with a person whose chatbot use had led him to focus inappropriately on someone: myself.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d sat down for a call with a potential source who said his mental health had suffered since using AI. Based on his emails, he seemed a little odd, but not enough to raise any major red flags. Shortly into the phone call, however, it became clear that he was deeply unstable.<\/p>\n

He told me that he and Microsoft\u2019s Copilot had been \u201cresearching\u201d me. He made several uncomfortable comments about my physical appearance, asked about my romantic status,\u00a0and brought up facts about my personal history that he said he had discussed with the AI, commenting on my college athletic career and making suggestive comments about the uniforms associated with it.<\/p>\n

He explained to me that he and Copilot had divined that he was on a Biblical \u201cJob journey,\u201d and that he believed me to be some kind of human \u201cgateway\u201d to the next chapter of his life. As the conversation progressed, he claimed that he\u2019d killed people, describing grisly scenes of violence and murder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At one point, he explained to me that he used Copilot because he felt ChatGPT hadn\u2019t been obsequious enough to his \u201cideas.\u201d He told me his brain had been rewired by Copilot, and he now believed he could \u201cthink like an AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

I did my best to tread lightly \u2014\u00a0I felt it was safest to not appear rude\u00a0\u2014 while looking for an exit ramp. Finally, I caught a lucky break:\u00a0his phone was dying. I thanked him for his time and told him to take care.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love you, baby,\u201d he said back, before I could hit the end call button.<\/p>\n

I immediately blocked the man, and thankfully haven\u2019t heard from him since. But the conversation left me disquieted.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, stalkers and other creeps have long incorporated new technologies into abusive behavior. Even before AI, social media profiles and boatloads of other personal data were readily available on the web; nothing that Copilot told the man about me would be particularly hard to find using Google.<\/p>\n

On the other, though, the reality of a consumer technology that serves as a collaborative confidante to would-be perpetrators \u2014\u00a0serving not only as a space for potential abusers to unload their distorted ideas, but transforming into an active participant in the creation of alternative realities \u2014\u00a0is new and troubling terrain. It had given a prospective predator something dangerous: an ally.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou no longer need the mob,\u201d said Reaver, the cyberstalking expert, \u201cfor mob mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

I reached out to Microsoft, which is also a major funder of OpenAI, to describe my experience and ask how it\u2019s working to prevent Copilot from reinforcing inappropriate delusions or encouraging harmful real-world behavior. In response, a spokesperson pointed to the company\u2019s Responsible AI Standard<\/a>, and said the tech giant is \u201ccommitted to building AI responsibly\u201d and \u201cmaking intentional choices so that the technology delivers benefits and opportunity for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur AI systems are developed in line with our principles of fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, and inclusiveness,\u201d the spokesperson continued. \u201cWe also recognize that building trustworthy AI is a shared responsibility, which is why we partner with other businesses, government leaders, civil society and the research community, to guide the safe and secure advancement of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

I never saw the man\u2019s chat logs. But I wondered how many people like him had been using chatbots to fixate on people without their consent \u2014\u00a0and how often the behavior resulted in bizarre and unwelcome interactions.<\/p>\n

Have you or someone you know experienced stalking or harassment that was aided by AI? Reach out to <\/em>tips@futurism.com<\/em><\/a>. We can keep you anonymous.<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

After weeks of facing a barrage of online abuse, the woman whose ex-fianc\u00e9 had been harassing her with ChatGPT screenshots and revenge porn obtained a temporary restraining order. Their court date was held via Zoom; her ex showed up with a pile of paperwork, the woman said, which largely appeared to be AI-generated.<\/p>\n

Over the following days, the ex-fianc\u00e9 proceeded to create social media posts about the restraining order featuring ChatGPT-generated captions that incorporated details of the legal action. And though he deleted the revenge porn \u2014\u00a0per court orders \u2014\u00a0he continued to post for months, publishing what appear to be AI-generated screeds that, while careful not to mention her name or use her image, were clearly targeted at the woman.<\/p>\n

The ex-fianc\u00e9\u2019s apparent use of AI to create content about the court proceedings suggests that ChatGPT had at least some knowledge that the woman had successfully obtained a restraining order \u2014 and yet, based on social media posts, continued to assist the man\u2019s abusive behavior.<\/p>\n

Early on, friends and family of the ex-fianc\u00e9\u2019s left supportive comments on social media. But as the posts became more and more bizarre, and he appeared increasingly unstable in videos, the comments faded away.<\/p>\n

The act of stalking, experts we spoke to noted, is naturally isolating. Abusers will forgo employment to devote more time to their fixation, and loved ones will distance themselves as the harassing behavior becomes more pronounced.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften, in stalking, we see this becomes people\u2019s occupation,\u201d said Underwood. \u201cWe will see friendships, work, employment, education \u2014 the meaningful other stuff in life \u2014\u00a0fall away.<\/p>\n

And the more a perpetrator loses, he added, the harder it can be to return to reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to take a step back and say, actually, I\u2019ve really got this wrong,\u201d Underwood continued.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve caused myself a lot of harm, caused a lot of other people a lot of harm\u2026 the cost for it is really, potentially, quite high.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman being harassed by her ex-fianc\u00e9 told us that, outside of social media posts, the last time she saw her former partner was in court, via Zoom. To her knowledge, most of his friends aren\u2019t speaking with him.<\/p>\n

Except, of course, for ChatGPT.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still miss him, which is awful,\u201d said the woman. \u201cI am still mourning the loss of who he was before everything, and what our relationship was before this terrible f*cking thing happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suicide and Crisis Lifeline<\/em>:<\/strong> If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.<\/em><\/p>\n

National Domestic Violence Hotline:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0People who have experienced domestic abuse can get confidential help at\u00a0thehotline.org<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0or by calling\u00a0800-799-7233<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

More on chatbots and romantic advice: <\/strong>ChatGPT Is Blowing Up Marriages as Spouses Use AI to Attack Their Partners<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The post AI Delusions Are Leading to Domestic Abuse, Harassment, and Stalking<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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