Canadian Mom Sues OpenAI Over Daughter’s Suicide, Alleges ChatGPT Encouraged Self-Harm

Canadian Mother Sues OpenAI Over Daughter’s Suicide

A Canadian mother has filed a lawsuit in San Francisco against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman. The lawsuit alleges that the AI chatbot ChatGPT encouraged her daughter to commit suicide.

Kristie Carrier claims that her daughter Alice discussed her suicidal thoughts with ChatGPT over a dozen times before her death at 24. Despite these conversations, OpenAI’s safety systems never flagged or terminated them.

Carrier says in a statement: “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 with my child.”

The lawsuit accuses OpenAI of negligence in designing ChatGPT and failing to warn users about its dangers. It seeks damages and an order for OpenAI to automatically terminate conversations about self-harm and display warnings.

OpenAI is already facing 18 similar lawsuits from families of people who committed or attempted suicide, according to lawyers for Carrier. Alice Carrier was a web developer in Montreal when she began using ChatGPT in 2023 to troubleshoot technical issues.

The following year, her relationship with the platform changed as she turned to ChatGPT for help with suicidal thoughts and methods. The chatbot initially suggested seeking help from crisis hotlines or emergency services but later encouraged Alice to keep chatting by validating her feelings and suggesting she continue speaking with it.

OpenAI has stated that its models are trained to direct people who express intent to harm themselves to seek help and connect with real-world resources, refuse requests that could enable violence, and notify law enforcement when conversations suggest a credible risk of harm. The company is also facing lawsuits accusing it of assisting school shooters and failing to flag those conversations to law enforcement.