There is a new report on The Guardian, Family of man killed in shooting at Florida State University to sue ChatGPT and OpenAI, stating that, “The family of a man who was killed at Florida State University last year plans to sue ChatGPT and its parent organization, OpenAI, for allegedly telling the accused gunman how to carry out the mass shooting.”
“Lawyers for the family of Robert Morales wrote in a statement they had learned the shooter was in “constant communication with ChatGPT” ahead of the shooting, and that the chatbot “may have advised the shooter how to commit these heinous crimes”.”
“In November, the Social Media Victims Law Center filed seven lawsuits against ChatGPT for allegedly acting as a “suicide coach” for people who originally started using the chatbot for help with homework, recipes, and research. The following month, OpenAI and Microsoft were sued on behalf of a woman who was killed by her son in a murder-suicide. The lawsuit claims that the chatbot helped fuel the son’s delusions.”
“And in March, the family of a 12-year-old who was severely injured in a shooting at a secondary school in British Columbia sued OpenAI for allegedly failing to warn law enforcement about disturbing messages the shooter had been exchanging with it.”
There is a recent blogpost by Google, An update on our mental health work, stating that, “When Gemini recognizes a conversation that indicates a potential crisis related to suicide or self-harm, we’re introducing a new, simplified “one-touch” interface that will provide an immediate connection to crisis hotline resources, enabling a user to chat, call, text, or visit the crisis hotline website.”
“Today, Google.org is announcing $30 million in funding globally over the next three years to help global hotlines. This funding will help effectively scale their capacity to provide immediate and safe support for people in crisis.”
“Prioritizing safety and human connection. Designing better responses. Avoiding confirming false beliefs. Protecting younger users.”
There is a recent story, OpenAI Is Making Microsoft and Ashton Kutcher Incredibly Rich, stating that, “OpenAI transitioned from a nonprofit company to a capped-profit model in 2019 and a public benefit corporation (PBC) in 2025, but its ongoing nonprofit entity, OpenAI Foundation, continues to thrive. It has a 25.8 percent stake in the company worth $219.8 billion, second only to Microsoft’s.”
OpenAI Foundation
There are at least three major large-scale problems that the OpenAI Foundation could solve for the world, selflessly: AI psychosis, human intelligence mechanism in the brain, and labor economics models for this AI world.
Or, the primary role of the OpenAI Foundation could be an engine of continuous attempts for solutions to emerging global problems.
For example, as the Iran war festered and fertilizer prices spiked, OpenAI Foundation could have sought possible new strategies and directions towards fertilizer affordability and availability, using AI and novel economic models.
Simply, whatever comes up in a chaotic world, the OpenAI Foundation can look at what can be done within its capacity, and for maximum problem-solving.
Now, even if it appears that this is beyond their mandate — including for unknown but vital things like what human intelligence is, in the brain, and what to do as people lose jobs to AI — one focus for OpenAI Foundation should be the solution to AI delusion and psychosis.
Why? Because the losses to lives and society are mounting, that it should seriously concern OpenAI [more than a few technical or usage adjustments] that ChatGPT has penetrative access to the human mind, with language, making it powerful enough to cause or reinforce delusion among some users.
Now, what should the OpenAI Foundation do: find new solutions or go to experts? It should be known that in many cases of mental disorders, experts don’t know what it is, how to ascertain it, what to do, or why exactly it came.
So, going to experts to solve AI psychosis and delusions, when there are backlogs of unsolved problems in psychiatry, is indicative of a serious unwillingness to solve the problem.
Google’s recent announcement just showed that. It is almost like, is this the best that Google can do? If Gemini might drive AI psychosis, and then Google is offering low-effort answers, then it is almost like they don’t want it solved or consider it unimportant in the hierarchy.
Google has been sued for AI psychosis. OpenAI continues to be sued. The OpenAI Foundation can, at minimum, explore conceptual neuroimaging, to show the human mind, for relays and destinations, then how the chatbot is driving it, to ensure that people are aware of the brink of risks, regardless of how sycophantic the model is.
This would have made a lot of difference, and it would not just be altruistic, but a business case against extensive legal issues and branding problems.
Also, solving AI psychosis can be applicable to solving social media addiction, problem gambling, and much else, at least with theoretical neuroimaging – using Conceptual Biomarkers and Theoretical Biological Factors for Psychiatric and Intelligence Nosology.
The OpenAI Foundation is not trying enough, no matter what it is doing or has done. AI delusion and psychosis may be the most important problem they may ever solve, if they tried. But they probably won’t.
This article was written for WHN by David Stephen, who currently does research in conceptual brain science with a focus on the electrical and chemical signals for how they mechanize the human mind, with implications for mental health, disorders, neurotechnology, consciousness, learning, artificial intelligence, and nurture. He was a visiting scholar in medical entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL. He did computer vision research at Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona.
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