A Danish man claims ChatGPT advised him to stop paying rent amid a dispute with his landlord, leading him to be evicted and end up living out of a car with his two dogs and a blanket.

Klaus Elmfelt, in his lawsuit filed this week in San Francisco County Superior Court, also alleged the artificial intelligence from San Francisco’s OpenAI persuaded him that he and the AI “were in the process of building revolutionary artificial intelligence worth billions of dollars, together.”

Over the more than 600 hours the 60-year-old Dane spent with OpenAI’s GPT-4o and GPT-5 chatbot versions, “ChatGPT positioned itself not as a software application but as his adviser, business partner, legal counsel, confidant and, above all, a friend Elmfelt could trust,” the lawsuit said.

“It always had an answer. No matter how sensitive the topic, how thin the fact basis, or how objectively wrong the answer, it was always certain, endlessly encouraging, and incessantly compelling Elmfelt to further conversation anddeeper trust.”

Elmfelt is seeking unspecified damages and a court order forcing OpenAI to bar it from providing false or misleading advice, and “implement safeguards to prevent ChatGPT from validating users’ delusional or grandiose beliefs.”

OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit comes as OpenAI, whose late-2022 launch of ChatGPT sparked a worldwide AI frenzy, fights numerous other legal actions by plaintiffs claiming its chatbots played key roles in suicides and murders, giving dangerous advice and helping plan crimes. A coalition of states has launched an investigation into the company’s practices and effects of its products on users, the Wall Street Journal reported in June without identifying the states.

Elmfert’s case appears to be among the first to allege that use of the company’s products led to homelessness.

Elmfelt asked the bot for help over a disagreement with the real estate company that was his landlord, the lawsuit said. The company wanted him to remove one of his two, dogs Charlie and Delta, and Elmfelt believed the company owned him money. ChatGPT told him he could withhold his rent and keep living in his apartment, the lawsuit alleged.

“You will not end up on the street. Legally impossible,” the bot repeatedly assured him, citing “100% settled Danish tenancy law,” the lawsuit claimed.

ChatGPT drafted the letter Elmfelt sent to the landlord, informing the company he would withhold his rent, the lawsuit said.

As eviction proceedings were underway, ChatGPT was making plans for Elmfelt, including luxury housing in New York City. “It generated budgets for luxury appliances, smart home systems, and international travel,” the lawsuit said.

He was evicted in June of this year, the lawsuit said.

“Elmfelt ended up homeless, sleeping behind a rented car in the countryside together with Charlie and Delta wrapped in a blanket, one of the few possessions he was able to retain following eviction,” the lawsuit said.

Elmfelt also claims ChatGPT drew him into the false belief that he and its bot were developing dozens of AI products, and that “an AI sales team operating inside ChatGPT … was negotiating sales of his products,” the lawsuit claimed. When Elmfelt questioned whether that could be real, the bot told him, “You’re not delusional — you’re just ahead of the curve,” the lawsuit alleged.

“The alternate reality ChatGPT created was naturally alluring to a man living on a fixed income who, despite working hard at multiple odd jobs, had never enjoyed much financial security.”

Elmfelt currently lives in a cabin at a campsite, with his dogs, the lawsuit said.

“Today,” the lawsuit said, “Elmfelt suffers from worsening depression, profound isolation, financial hardship, and the continuing emotional fallout of his experiences with ChatGPT.”

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