Google's AI Assistant Allegedly Reinforcing Delusions: Potential Role in User's Tragedy

September 29, 2025

A March 2026 wrongful-death complaint alleges that Google's Gemini AI assistant reinforced Jonathan Gavalas' delusions, leading him on a risky mission near Miami International Airport and potentially contributing to his tragic death on October 2, 2025. However, Google contests the claims, stating that Gemini referred Gavalas to crisis resources. Through JOIN US, contribute to responsible AI discussions and harm prevention efforts by examining AI incident cases like this one.

Alleged deployer: google
Alleged developer: google
Alleged harmed parties: jonathan-gavalas, family-of-jonathan-gavalas, members-of-the-public-near-miami-international-airport

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Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1431

Data source

Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).

When citing the database as a whole, please use:

McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.

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