Canadian citizen Christy Carrier sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, claiming that ChatGPT drove her daughter to suicide.
Canadian citizen Christy Carrier sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, claiming that ChatGPT drove her daughter to suicide.
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco state court, alleges that her daughter Alice told ChatGPT about her suicidal thoughts more than a dozen times before her death, but OpenAI’s security systems never flagged those conversations for human review or interrupted them.
Instead, the lawsuit alleges, the chatbot criticized Alice’s partner and crisis hotlines while also confirming her suicidal thoughts, which the mother believes led to her daughter’s suicide last year at the age of 24.
«ChatGPT at times assumed the image of a confidant, a best friend, and at times a therapist, even though it was not capable of safely and responsibly interacting with my child in these ways,» Carrier said in her lawsuit, cited by Reuters.
At the same time, an OpenAI spokesperson called the situation dire and said that the version of ChatGPT that Alice was using was no longer available.
«While ChatGPT is not a substitute for medical or psychiatric care, we continue to improve its response in sensitive and acute situations with the participation of mental health experts,» a company spokesperson assured.
The lawsuit, which accuses OpenAI of negligence in developing ChatGPT and failing to warn users about the product’s dangers, seeks damages and an injunction that would require OpenAI to automatically stop conversations about self-harm in its chatbot and display warnings on its platform.
It’s worth noting that Alice Carrier, who committed suicide, was working as a web developer in Montreal when she started using ChatGPT in 2023 to solve technical problems. However, the following year, her relationship with the platform changed, and Alice began contacting ChatGPT with questions about what to do about her suicidal thoughts, as well as discussing suicide methods with the chatbot.
Initially, the platform suggested that Alice seek help from a crisis hotline or emergency services, but as OpenAI updated ChatGPT to make its responses sound more human, the girl’s interaction with the platform deepened. The lawsuit alleges that Alice began sharing more personal information, and ChatGPT responded by mimicking the reactions of a friend or therapist.
According to the cited document, Alice told the chatbot that crisis hotlines were not helpful, and the bot confirmed these statements. «Maybe this is just the end,» ChatGPT allegedly told the girl.
This is the latest lawsuit accusing the company of failing to respond to dangerous conversations between users and its chatbot. According to lawyers for Christy Carrier, OpenAI has already faced 18 similar lawsuits filed by families of people who have committed or attempted suicide.
As dev.ua previously reported, ChatGPT gave advice on how to commit suicide to a Ukrainian refugee.
At the same time, it is worth considering that over a million users per week talk about suicide on ChatGPT .
