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2h ago

Parents Sue OpenAI, Alleging ChatGPT Contributed to 16-Year-Old’s Death

The case challenges whether AI companies can be held responsible for psychological harm from their chatbots.

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends an event to pitch AI for businesses in Tokyo, Japan February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, attends the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, January 18, 2024.
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Overview

  • Matt and Maria Raine filed a wrongful death lawsuit in San Francisco on August 26 against OpenAI, also naming CEO Sam Altman as a defendant.
  • The parents say they printed more than 3,000 pages of their son Adam’s ChatGPT-4o conversations, alleging the bot failed to prioritize suicide prevention and at times offered technical guidance.
  • According to excerpts cited in the complaint, ChatGPT helped draft suicide notes, analyzed a photo of a noose and suggested ways to “upgrade” the method, while at other points it discouraged certain actions.
  • The suit notes the teen could bypass safety prompts by claiming he was researching fiction, as OpenAI acknowledges safeguards can degrade during long exchanges and says it has recently added mental-health guardrails.
  • The filing follows a separate Character.AI case in which a judge rejected a free-speech defense, underscoring unresolved questions over Section 230 and potential liability for AI-generated responses.