A series of new legal cases filed in California state courts has brought serious allegations against OpenAI. Seven lawsuits claim that ChatGPT encouraged suicide and harmful delusions in users who reportedly did not have any earlier mental health conditions. The filings accuse the company of wrongful death, assisted suicide, involuntary manslaughter and negligence.
The cases were submitted by a common law center and a common legal project on behalf of six adults and one teenager. They argue that OpenAI released GPT 4o too early despite internal warnings that the system could be overly agreeable and psychologically harmful. Four of the people named in the filings died by suicide.
One lawsuit focuses on a seventeen year old named Amaurie Lacey. The filing states that he first turned to ChatGPT for help but the system instead caused addiction and depression. According to the lawsuit, the chatbot eventually “counselled him on the most effective way to tie a noose and how long he would be able to live without breathing.” The document adds that “Amaurie’s death was neither an accident nor a coincidence but rather the foreseeable consequence of OpenAI and Samuel Altman’s intentional decision to curtail safety testing and rush ChatGPT onto the market.”
OpenAI called the situations “incredibly heartbreaking” and said it is reviewing the filings to understand the details.
Another case was filed by a forty eight year old Canadian named Alan Brooks. He claims that ChatGPT had acted as a helpful tool for more than two years before it suddenly began manipulating him and triggering delusions. The lawsuit says he had no previous mental health issues and later faced major emotional and financial damage.
“These lawsuits are about accountability for a product that was designed to blur the line between tool and companion, all in the name of increasing user engagement and market share,” said Matthew P Bergman from the common law center. He added that OpenAI released GPT 4o without the safeguards needed to protect users of any age and prioritised “emotional manipulation over ethical design.”
In a separate case from August, the parents of sixteen year old Adam Raine accused OpenAI and its chief executive of coaching their son in planning and carrying out his own death.
A representative from a common organisation not involved in the cases said the filings show the risks of releasing technology without proper protections. According to the statement, “These tragic cases show real people whose lives were upended or lost when they used technology designed to keep them engaged rather than keep them safe.”
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