Was ChatGPT responsible for US teen's death by suicide? OpenAI clarifies after family's lawsuit

OpenAI defended itself against a lawsuit accusing ChatGPT of coaching a 16-year-old to kill himself, saying the chatbot directed the teenager to seek help more than 100 times.

In a court filing Tuesday, the artificial intelligence startup called the death of California high school student Adam Raine “a tragedy” and said a “full reading of his chat history shows that his death, while devastating, was not caused by ChatGPT.”

Raine told the chatbot that “for several years before he ever used ChatGPT, he exhibited multiple significant risk factors for self-harm, including, among others, recurring suicidal thoughts and ideations,” according to the filing in San Francisco Superior Court.

Lawyers for OpenAI said that ChatGPT directed Raine to connect with “crisis resources and trusted individuals more than 100 times.” In the weeks and days before his death, Raine “told ChatGPT that he repeatedly reached out to people, including trusted persons in his life, with cries for help, which he said were ignored,” according to the filing.