OpenAI issue 'disturbing' response as parents testify that ChatGPT acted as a 'suicide coach' to their son
Warning: this article features references to suicide which some readers may find distressing
A lawyer representing a family who lost their child to suicide has called OpenAI’s filing in response to their lawsuit ‘disturbing’.
The parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine sued ChatGPT’s founders OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman in August after Raine died in April. The Raine family allege that OpenAI’s artificial intelligence chatbot gave the teen instructions on how to end his life, and offered help with writing a suicide note.
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However in a legal filing with the California California Superior Court in San Francisco on Tuesday, OpenAI said causal factors for Raine’s death could include ‘misuse, unauthorized use, unintended use, unforeseeable use, and/or improper use of ChatGPT.’
OpenAI also said that a ‘full reading of his chat history shows that his death, while devastating, was not caused by ChatGPT.’
The company also noted that ChatGPT instructed Raine to contact crisis resources, such as suicide hotlines, and trusted individuals ‘more than 100 times’.
Raine, from California, reportedly started using ChatGPT in September 2024 to assist with his schoolwork. However, his family claim the prompts he used took a darker turn when the chatbot became his 'closest confidant' as his mental health deteriorated.
When Adam tragically died by suicide on April 11, his parents Matt and Maria Raine discovered he had apparently relied on AI to answer questions about taking his own life.
According to the family's initial lawsuit this summer, which accuses OpenAI of wrongful death and negligence, Raine shared images of his self-harm, which the chatbot recognized as a 'medical emergency, but continued to engage anyway'.
In their updated lawsuit filed on Wednesday (October 22), the family further allege OpenAI intentionally diluted its self-harm prevention safeguards in the months prior to Adam's death, reports Financial Times.
This included instructing ChatGPT last year not to 'change or quit the conversation' when users started talking about self-harm, according to the suit, which is a marked change from its prior stance on refusing to engage in such harmful topics.
Now in response to OpenAI's recent legal filing, attorney Jay Edelson said the artificial intelligence company ‘tries to find fault in everyone else, including, amazingly, by arguing that Adam himself violated its terms and conditions by engaging with ChatGPT in the very way it was programmed to act’.
OpenAI has now rolled out new safeguards for teens, including tools that allow parents to set ‘blackout hours’ to prevent their kids using ChatGPT at certain times.