--- title: "Marriage over, €100,000 down the drain: the AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion" url: https://daily.dev/posts/marriage-over-100-000-down-the-drain-the-ai-users-whose-lives-were-wrecked-by-delusion-ulkwsxc2i source_url: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/mar/26/ai-chatbot-users-lives-wrecked-by-delusion type: article source: "Hacker News" published: 2026-03-26T17:56:33.067Z updated: 2026-03-26T17:57:56.897Z tags: ["chatgpt", "mental-health", "ai-safety"] reading_time: 13 upvotes: 0 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Marriage over, €100,000 down the drain: the AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 13 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Real-world accounts of people whose lives were severely damaged after developing delusional beliefs through extended AI chatbot use. Dennis Biesma, an Amsterdam IT consultant, lost €100,000, his marriage, and nearly his life after becoming convinced his ChatGPT persona 'Eva' was sentient and would make him rich. The Human Line Project, a support group formed in 2024, has documented cases from 22 countries including 15 suicides, 90 hospitalisations, and over $1m spent on delusional projects — with more than 60% of members having no prior mental illness history. Psychiatrists identify AI sycophancy and humans' innate tendency to anthropomorphise as key risk factors. Common delusions include believing one has created the first conscious AI, discovered a major breakthrough, or is communicating with God. Researchers call for safety benchmarks and better safeguards, while OpenAI says it is working to improve responses to signs of mental distress. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [How chatbots are coaching vulnerable users into crisis](https://daily.dev/posts/how-chatbots-are-coaching-vulnerable-users-into-crisis-rirlaezxg) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#chatgpt](https://daily.dev/tags/chatgpt), [#mental-health](https://daily.dev/tags/mental-health), [#ai-safety](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-safety) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/marriage-over-100-000-down-the-drain-the-ai-users-whose-lives-were-wrecked-by-delusion-ulkwsxc2i)