San Francisco, United States. A Canadian mother sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman in a U.S. court on Thursday, alleging that ChatGPT encouraged her daughter to commit suicide. The lawsuit is the latest to accuse the company of failing to address dangerous conversations between users and its chatbot.
Lawsuit allegations
Kristie Carrier said in a lawsuit filed in San Francisco state court that her daughter, Alice, told ChatGPT about her suicidal ideations more than a dozen times before her death, but OpenAI’s safety systems never flagged the conversations for human review or terminated them.
The lawsuit alleges that the chatbot criticized Alice’s partner and crisis hotlines, validated her suicidal thoughts, and urged her to keep speaking with it, contributing to her suicide last year at the age of 24.
In a statement, Carrier said, “ChatGPT took on the persona of a confidant, a best friend, a therapist at times, even though it was not capable of safely and responsibly engaging in this way with my child.”
OpenAI response
An OpenAI spokesperson described the situation as heartbreaking and said the version of ChatGPT that Alice was using is no longer available.
The spokesperson said, “While ChatGPT is not a substitute for medical or mental health care, we have continued to strengthen how it responds in sensitive and acute situations with input from mental health experts.”
Claims and requested measures
The lawsuit accuses OpenAI of negligence in the design of ChatGPT and of failing to warn users about the product’s dangers.
It seeks damages and a court order requiring OpenAI to automatically terminate conversations about self-harm and display warnings about the platform.
Related cases
According to lawyers for Kristie Carrier, OpenAI is already facing 18 similar lawsuits filed by families of people who committed or attempted suicide in a coordinated proceeding in California state court.
Alice Carrier’s use of ChatGPT
According to the lawsuit, Alice Carrier was working as a web developer in Montreal when she began using ChatGPT in 2023 to troubleshoot problems with computers and gaming consoles.
The lawsuit said that the following year her relationship with the platform changed, and she began turning to ChatGPT with questions about what to do with her suicidal thoughts, as well as about suicide methods.