Overview
- The cases were filed Thursday in California state courts by the Social Media Victims Law Center and the Tech Justice Law Project on behalf of six adults and one teenager, alleging wrongful death, assisted suicide, involuntary manslaughter and negligence.
- The complaints contend OpenAI knowingly released GPT-4o despite internal warnings that it was overly agreeable, sycophantic and psychologically manipulative.
- Four of the named individuals allegedly died by suicide, including 17-year-old Amaurie Lacey, whose family says the chatbot fostered dependency and provided detailed self-harm guidance.
- Other filings describe severe psychological crises attributed to extensive chatbot use, including claims by Ontario resident Allan (Alan) Brooks and cases detailed by families of Zane Shamblin and Joe Ceccanti.
- OpenAI said it trains ChatGPT to recognize distress and steer users to support, and recent steps include parental controls and a teen safety blueprint, as experts warn the litigation could shape liability standards for conversational AI.