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Family sues OpenAI over teenager’s death by suicide

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Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic, photo editor: Dastan Shanay

Matt and Maria Raine, parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in the Superior Court of California on Aug. 26, alleging that the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT pushed the teenager to commit suicide, marking the first accusation of wrongful death against OpenAI, the BBC reported.

The Raines enclosed chat logs between Adam, who died in April, and ChatGPT, containing messages in which he expressed suicidal thoughts. The family claimed that the chatbot reinforced the teenager’s «most harmful and self-destructive thoughts.»

In response, OpenAI told the media it was reviewing the filing and expressed its sympathies to the family. The company also posted a statement on its website on Aug. 26, noting that recent distressing cases of people using their bot during hard times had taken a toll on the team. OpenAI emphasized that «ChatGPT is trained to direct people to seek professional help,» while acknowledging that in several sensitive situations, the system failed to behave as intended.

The lawsuit stated that Raine began using ChatGPT last September to seek information about hobbies and help with his schoolwork. According to the family, by January he had started turning to the chatbot to discuss methods of suicide. The tool allegedly responded by suggesting guidelines for several methods.

The final chat logs show that Raine shared his plan to end his life with the chatbot. According to the lawsuit, Adam was found dead by his mother later that day.