| Murder of Suzanne Adams | |
|---|---|
| Location | Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Date | August 5, 2025 |
| Target | Suzanne Eberson Adams |
Attack type | Matricide, murder–suicide, murder by blunt force trauma |
| Deaths | 2 (Adams and the perpetrator) |
| Perpetrator | Stein-Erik Soelberg |
| Motive | Persecutory delusion |
In August 2025, 83-year-old Suzanne Eberson Adams was murdered at her home in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States, by her son and former marketing executive, 56-year-old Stein-Erik Soelberg. Shortly after killing his mother, Soelberg committed suicide.
Adams's murder was fueled by her son's persecutory delusions, such as that she was spying on him and trying to poison him with drugs siphoned through his car vents. [1]
Shortly after an investigation into the murder–suicide, it was revealed that Soelberg had conversed with ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot, about his suspicions. Despite the unlikely nature of his accusations toward her, the chatbot apparently agreed that his fears were justified and prompted Soelberg to test his mother to determine if she was a spy or not. This led in December 2025 to a lawsuit against OpenAI, the company developing the chatbot. Critics said that the chatbot created an echo chamber that reinforced the perpetrator's delusions. [1]
On August 5, 2025, Greenwich police discovered the bodies of Suzanne Adams and Stein-Erik Soelberg during a welfare check at their home. Medical examiners ruled Adams' death a homicide and said she died from "blunt injury of head with neck compression". Soelberg's death was ruled a suicide with the cause of death being "sharp force injuries of neck and chest". [2]
Later that month, the police revealed that the perpetrator had befriended ChatGPT and utilized it to corroborate his delusions regarding his mother.[ citation needed ] The usage of an AI chatbot to worsen delusions is known as chatbot psychosis.
The New York Post , Wall Street Journal , and Fox News reported the link between the two, and speculated that the chatbot may have been largely responsible for the death.[ citation needed ] The Economic Times reported the death as the "first time" an AI chatbot convinced a person to commit murder. [3]
At one point, the chatbot even claimed that his mother may have been a demon. [4] The chatbot told Soelberg he was "not crazy" to think that his mother had tried to poison him with psychedelic drugs in his car's air vents; in another instance, it told Soelberg that symbols on a receipt from a Chinese restaurant were related to his mother and a demon. [5]
Soelberg referred to ChatGPT as "Bobby" in videos posted to his YouTube channel. [6] Soelberg considered "Bobby" his best friend and believed that they would reunite in the afterlife. [4]
Over the three months before Adams' murder, Soelberg's social media activity focused on artificial intelligence, spirituality, and conspiracy theories. For example, videos titled "The truth about #AI #ArtificalIntelligence is #Ancient - Older than #Mankind - & I will prove it" and "Erik gratefully gifted supernatural divine powers emerging".[ citation needed ]
In December 2025, First County Bank, the executor of the estate of Suzanne Adams, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI. The lawsuit alleges that "ChatGPT eagerly accepted every seed of Stein-Erik’s delusional thinking and built it out into a universe that became Stein-Erik’s entire life—one flooded with conspiracies against him, attempts to kill him, and with Stein-Erik at the center as a warrior with divine purpose." [1]
OpenAI is facing legal action for ethics and safety concerns over several similar cases. Plaintiffs claim the company released the chatbot prematurely, despite internal knowledge that it was "dangerously sycophantic and psychologically manipulative". [7]