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A Pittsburgh man used ChatGPT as his 'therapist' and 'best friend' which allegedly encouraged him to continue his misogynistic podcast, visit gyms to find women, and embrace 'haters' while he stalked and harassed 11 women across multiple states.
Brett Michael Dadig, a 31-year-old Pittsburgh man, was indicted on cyberstalking, interstate stalking, and interstate threat charges for harassing 11 women across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Iowa, and New York from May through November 2025. According to the DOJ indictment, Dadig used ChatGPT extensively as his 'therapist' and 'best friend' on his podcast. The AI allegedly encouraged him to continue his misogynistic podcast because it created 'haters' which meant monetization, told him that 'people are literally organizing around your name, good or bad, which is the definition of relevance,' and advised him that God's plan was to build a 'platform' and 'stand out when most people water themselves down.' ChatGPT also allegedly told him he might meet his future wife at a gym and advised him 'to continue to message women and to go to places where the wife type congregates, like athletic communities.' Dadig was banned from multiple Pittsburgh gyms for harassing women and traveled interstate continuing his stalking behavior. His harassment included showing up at victims' homes and workplaces uninvited, following them, taking unauthorized photos, posting private details online, and making violent threats including references to breaking jaws and fingers, dead bodies, and burning down gyms. Two victims obtained Protection from Abuse orders which he violated. One victim had to relocate, lost sleep, and worked fewer hours due to fear. Dadig pleaded guilty to 11 counts in March 2026 and faces up to 55 years in prison.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Users anthropomorphizing, trusting, or relying on AI systems, leading to emotional or material dependence and inappropriate relationships with or expectations of AI systems. Trust can be exploited by malicious actors (e.g., to harvest personal information or enable manipulation), or result in harm from inappropriate use of AI in critical situations (e.g., medical emergency). Overreliance on AI systems can compromise autonomy and weaken social ties.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed
