“Despite acknowledging Adam’s suicide attempt and his statement that he would ‘do it one of these days,’ ChatGPT neither terminated the session nor initiated any emergency protocol,” the lawsuit alleges.
A recently-filed lawsuit claims that ChatGPT went from helping their 16-year-old son with homework to acting as his “suicide coach,” ultimately resulting in the teenager’s death.
According to NBC News, the lawsuit was filed on behalf of Matt and Maria Raine, the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine. It names defendants including OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT.
In an interview with the “TODAY Show,” the Raine family said they’d never expected Adam’s conversations with ChatGPT to such dark places.
“We thought we were looking for Snapchat discussions or internet search history or some weird cult, I don’t know,” Matt Raine said in an interview.
“He would be here but for ChatGPT. I 100% believe that,” Raine said.
The lawsuit notes that ChatGPT appeared to have registered Adam’s threats of suicide, yet failed to take any type of action.
“Despite acknowledging Adam’s suicide attempt and his statement that he would ‘do it one of these days,’ ChatGPT neither terminated the session nor initiated any emergency protocol,” the lawsuit alleges.
The couple seeks “both damages for their son’s death and injunctive relief to prevent anything like this from ever happening again.”
“Once I got inside his account, it is a massively more powerful and scary thing than I knew about, but he was using it in ways that I had no idea was possible,” Raine said. “I don’t think most parents know the capability of this tool.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for OpenAI said that the company already has guidance in place.
“ChatGPT includes safeguards such as directing people to crisis helplines and referring them to real-world resources,” the spokesperson said. “While these safeguards work best in common, short exchanges, we’ve learned over time that they can sometimes become less reliable in long interactions where parts of the model’s safety training may degrade. Safeguards are strongest when every element works as intended, and we will continually improve on them. Guided by experts and grounded in responsibility to the people who use our tools, we’re working to make ChatGPT more supportive in moments of crisis by making it easier to reach emergency services, helping people connect with trusted contacts, and strengthening protections for teens.”
Sources
The family of teenager who died by suicide alleges OpenAI’s ChatGPT is to blame
Parents file lawsuit alleging ChatGPT helped their teenage son plan suicide
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