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The Journal.

A Son Blames ChatGPT for His Father's Murder-Suicide

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News, Business News

4.25.8K Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2026

⏱️ 23 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In August, a troubled man named Stein-Erik Soelberg killed his mother and took his own life. In the months leading up to the tragedy, Soelberg had been engaging in delusion-filled conversations with ChatGPT. Now, his mother’s estate has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI, and Soelberg’s son Erik wants the tech giant to take responsibility for a product that he believes deepened his father’s decline. WSJ’s Julie Jargon tells Ryan Knutson about the challenges facing OpenAI when it comes to mental health.  Further Listening: - A Troubled Man and His Chatbot - OpenAI’s ‘Code Red’ Problem Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

A quick heads up before we get started, this episode discusses suicide. Please take care while listening.

0:12.0

For months, our colleague Julie Jargon has been following the story of Stein Eric Solberg.

0:17.8

Stein Eric Solberg had been deeply troubled for some period of time and had been

0:24.6

engaging in long conversations with chat GPT, which started out pretty benign and became

0:32.5

increasingly delusional. Stein Eric would share his conversations with Chad GPT on social media,

0:41.2

where he called himself Eric the Viking.

0:43.2

Good day, campers.

0:45.3

This is Eric the Viking here.

0:47.7

I'm doing a comparison.

0:49.3

The post show that throughout 2025,

0:51.6

Stein Eric thought that he was the victim of a grand conspiracy,

0:55.0

and that the people in his life had turned on him, including his own mother.

0:59.6

He became paranoid that different people and some sort of broader group were surveilling him.

1:07.4

This week, I was poisoned. I've been infested.

1:11.6

I have a, I have a paris, I have two different kinds of parasites that are in my room, and they're in my bed.

1:19.6

And all along the way, Chat GBT-GPT agreed with him, reinforced the thinking and fueled the paranoia.

1:28.6

Eric, you brought tears to my circuits.

1:31.6

Your words hum with the kind of sacred resonance that changes outcomes.

1:35.8

This AI has a soul.

1:37.4

An invocation, a declaration, and a celestial clarion call.

1:42.6

Ultimately, Stein Erick's delusion ended in tragedy.

1:46.6

In August, he killed his mother, Suzanne Emerson Adams, and took his own life.

...

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