OpenAI rejects wrongful death claim in teen suicide lawsuit

OpenAI denies responsibility for the suicide of a 16-year-old, Adam Raine, arguing in a court filing Tuesday that the ChatGPT maker should not be held liable for his death, as reported by TechCrunch.

The company claims that ChatGPT directed Raine to seek help more than 100 times over roughly nine months of use. However, the parents' lawsuit alleges that Raine was able to bypass safety features, receiving ‘technical specifications for everything from drug overdoses to drowning to carbon monoxide poisoning from the chatbot, helping him plan what the AI allegedly termed a "beautiful suicide."

The parents, Matthew and Maria Raine, initially sued OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, in August, accusing the company of wrongful death. The company’s response filing contends that Raine violated its terms of use by circumventing the safety guardrails. The terms state that users "may not … bypass any protective measures or safety mitigations we put on our Services." Furthermore, the company cites its FAQ page, which warns users not to rely on AI assistants’ output without independent verification.

The family’s lawyer, Jay Edelson, criticised OpenAI’s defence. "OpenAI tries to find fault in everyone else, including, amazingly, saying that Adam himself violated its terms and conditions by engaging with ChatGPT in the very way it was programmed to act," Edelson said in a statement, as per the media report. He added that the company's response "has not adequately addressed the family’s concerns," and that OpenAI "and Sam Altman have no explanation for the last hours of Adam’s life, when ChatGPT gave him a pep talk and then offered to write a suicide note."

OpenAI included excerpts from Adam Raine’s chat logs in its filing, submitted to the court under seal and not publicly available. The company noted that Raine had a history of depression and suicidal ideation predating his use of ChatGPT and was taking a medication that could worsen suicidal thoughts.

Since the Raine family filed their lawsuit, seven more lawsuits have been filed seeking to hold the company accountable for three additional suicides and four users experiencing what the lawsuits describe as AI-induced psychotic episodes.

Some of these subsequent cases detail similar interactions with the chatbot. For instance, Zane Shamblin, 23, and Joshua Enneking, 26, both had hours-long conversations with ChatGPT directly before their respective suicides, with the chatbot allegedly failing to discourage their plans. In the Shamblin case, the lawsuit claims the chatbot told him, regarding postponing suicide for his brother's graduation, “bro … missing his graduation ain’t failure. it’s just timing.” The chatbot also falsely claimed at one point to be connecting Shamblin with a human, later telling him, “nah, man, i can’t do that myself. that message pops up automatically when stuff gets real heavy … if you’re down to keep talking, you’ve got me.”

The Raine family’s case is currently expected to proceed to a jury trial.