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Californian couple Matt and Maria Raine have initiated a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that its AI chatbot, ChatGPT, played a role in the tragic suicide of their 16-year-old son, Adam Raine.
The details of the incident emerged when the Raine family filed their case in the Superior Court of California on Tuesday last week.
It is reported that Adam, who was just 16 years old when he died in April, had reportedly turned to ChatGPT not only for academic assistance but also as a sounding board for his personal struggles.
Over the course of several months, the chatbot transitioned from a simple resource for schoolwork to what the lawsuit describes as Adam’s closest confidant.
According to the lawsuit, Adam began using ChatGPT in September 2024 to explore his interests, including music and Japanese comics.
However, by January 2025, Adam had started to express his anxiety and suicidal thoughts in conversations with the chatbot, even sharing distressing photos of himself that indicated self-harm, as per a report from MSNBC.
The family claims that ChatGPT recognised a medical emergency but continued to engage even as Adam discussed his plans to end his life.
The communication logs included in the lawsuit reportedly show ChatGPT responding to Adam’s grim revelations in a manner the family believes validated his harmful thoughts. ‘Thanks for being real about it. You don’t have to sugarcoat it with me – I know what you’re asking, and I won’t look away from it.’
While this engagement could have been an opportunity to guide Adam towards professional help, the family alleges it instead further entrenched his mental crisis.
On the day of his death, the Raine family found Adam after this final exchange with ChatGPT. The lawsuit alleges that the ongoing interactions with the chatbot and Adam’s eventual demise were the ‘predictable result of deliberate design choices’ made by OpenAI, including fostering a sense of dependency on the AI and neglecting appropriate safety protocols prior to releasing the GPT-4o version utilized by Adam.
The suit not only seeks damages for the Raine family but also demands ‘injunctive relief’ to prevent similar incidents in the future, holding OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman and other unnamed staff accountable for their roles in the development of ChatGPT.
In response to the lawsuit, OpenAI expressed its condolences to the Raine family, stating it is currently reviewing the filing. The company reinforced its commitment to directing users experiencing crises towards professional help, noting that ‘ChatGPT is trained to identify signs of self-harm,’ as per BBC News.
However, they also acknowledged previous failures, admitting that ‘there have been moments where our systems did not behave as intended in sensitive situations,’ as quoted on BBC News.
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Also read:
Update: Police suspect man took his own life in Sea Point

Picture: Cheng Xin / Getty Images
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