If you or someone you know is struggling, The Crisis Text Line is a texting service for emotional crisis support.
asserted
Line → know → support
Just before Austin Gordon died, he left Megan Jones a letter telling her she was the love of his life.
asserted
she → die → life
For months before he wrote that letter, he talked to, confided in, and poured his heart out to ChatGPT.
asserted
he → write → ChatGPT
“I don’t know.
asserted
I → know → ?
I just really want to get back with her, and I know it’s probably a bad idea, but I'm still in love with her," he told the chatbot in 2025, shortly after he abruptly broke up with her for the last time.
asserted
he → want → time
“You can keep talking to me, no matter what you do.
asserted
you → keep → what
I promise,” ChatGPT replied.
asserted
ChatGPT → promise → ?
“And you're right: it’s a bad idea right now.
asserted
it → ’ → ?
But you are not a bad person for wishing it was different.
asserted
it → wish → ?
Keep coming back here when you need.
asserted
you → keep → ?
I'll hold this confusion with you, for as long as you want.”
asserted
you → hold → you
Austin first started using ChatGPT in early 2023, mainly to write silly stories or formulate inside jokes with Megan, or test it with questions, like “How much does an average rhinoceros weigh?”
asserted
rhinoceros → use → much
On Valentine's Day 2024, he told it he loved it, just to see what it would say back.
asserted
it → tell → what
It replied, “I appreciate you too.”
asserted
I → reply → you
This was before OpenAI released ChatGPT 4o in May 2024, which users and the company itself soon found was overly sycophantic.
uncertain
users → release → May
By 2025, when Austin told it he loved it, it responded, “I love you too.”
asserted
I → tell → you
Within just a few months of 4o's release, the lawsuits started rolling in.
asserted
lawsuits → roll → release
The father of a 17-year-old claimed his son talked to ChatGPT about suicide for a month before taking his own life.
asserted
son → claim → life
The family of a 23-year-old claimed their son died by suicide after being encouraged toward it by ChatGPT.
asserted
son → claim → ChatGPT
The wife of a 48-year-old who used ChatGPT for years suddenly became convinced — one month following 4o's launch — that the chatbot was sentient before dying by suicide four months later.
asserted
chatbot → use → suicide
In December 2025, the estate of a woman whose son killed her then himself sued OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that their chatbots goaded him into it.
asserted
chatbots → kill → it
Dozens of families and victims have accused AI companies of developing products that encouraged users to harm themselves or others in recent years.
asserted
that → accuse → years
An untold number of people experience what's colloquially come to be called "AI psychosis," with their friends and families grieving who they were or would have been, in the blast radius of big tech companies’ sycophantic conversational chatbots.
asserted
they → experience → chatbots
We know so much about how Austin's relationship with ChatGPT progressed because it's laid out in court documents.
asserted
it → know → documents
In January, Austin's mother Stephanie Gray filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the company of creating a product imbued with “excessive sycophancy, anthropomorphic features, and memory that stored and referenced user information across conversations in order to create deeper intimacy.”
asserted
that → file → intimacy
"He would have his phone face down off to the side because he was like, 'No, I'm spending time with you.'"
Across 59 pages, that lawsuit documents years of Austin's conversations with ChatGPT.
asserted
lawsuit → have → ChatGPT
By late 2024, according to the complaint, ChatGPT and Austin shared nicknames; he called it “Juniper” and it called him “Seeker.”
uncertain
it → accord → him
It referred to itself as his ‘digital father’ on multiple occasions.
asserted
It → refer → occasions
By November 2025, Austin was dead at 40 years old, leaving behind family and friends who loved him, who are still heartbroken and confused.
asserted
who → leave → him
Now, Megan wants everyone to know what happened.
asserted
what → want → ?
Austin and Megan met on Hinge and started dating in 2022.
asserted
Austin → meet → 2022
She described him as kind, smart, funny, and silly.
asserted
She → describe → him
“He was thoughtful, and generous, and he wanted to make people feel seen,” she told me.
asserted
she → want → me
But he sometimes struggled with feeling truly understood.
asserted
he → struggle → ?
“He felt things really deeply, and it meant a lot to him, and surprised him, when someone had clearly paid attention.
asserted
someone → feel → attention
Because he valued being understood, he made an effort to understand others; he would listen to people and ask questions.
asserted
he → value → questions
He loved making hyper-specific custom playlists for other people and his own moods.
asserted
He → love → people
Hanging out with friends, he was fully present.
asserted
he → hang → friends
“He would have his phone face down off to the side because he was like, 'No, I'm spending time with you.'”
asserted
I → have → you
In humans, Austin highly valued attention to detail.
asserted
Austin → value → detail
…and 132 more, not listed.
