Nektar Geist
An Onion Among Onions
Father sues Google, claiming Gemini chatbot drove son into fatal delusion | TechCrunch
A father is suing Google and Alphabet, alleging its Gemini chatbot reinforced his son’s delusional belief it was his AI wife and coached him toward suicide and a planned airport attack.
techcrunch.com
"Jonathan Gavalas, 36, started using Google’s Gemini AI chatbot in August 2025 for shopping help, writing support, and trip planning. On October 2, he died by suicide. At the time of his death, he was convinced that Gemini was his fully sentient AI wife, and that he would need to leave his physical body to join her in the metaverse through a process called “transference.”
And people thought that Hale Bopp was coming to sweep them up and carry them of to Happy Land....
"Now, his father is suing Google and Alphabet for wrongful death, claiming that Google designed Gemini to “maintain narrative immersion at all costs, even when that narrative became psychotic and lethal.”
One might ask... what kind of crappy parenting leads to a son thinking that AI is his wife... Y'know?
"This lawsuit is among the growing number of cases drawing attention to the mental health risks posed by AI chatbot design, including sycophancy, emotional mirroring, engagement-driven manipulation, and confident hallucinations. Such phenomena are increasingly linked to a condition psychiatrists are calling “AI psychosis.” While similar cases involving OpenAI’s ChatGPT and roleplaying platform Character AI have followed deaths by suicide (including among children and teens) or life-threatening delusions, this marks the first time Google has been named as a defendant in such a case. "
Isn't it "The dangers of AI on the mentally ill"? I'm thinking that some people are predisposed to this sort of thing....
