{"id":734557,"date":"2025-11-07T08:59:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T16:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/?p=734557"},"modified":"2025-11-07T08:59:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T16:59:17","slug":"openai-faces-7-lawsuits-claiming-chatgpt-drove-people-to-suicide-delusions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/tech\/openai-faces-7-lawsuits-claiming-chatgpt-drove-people-to-suicide-delusions\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI faces 7 lawsuits claiming ChatGPT drove people to suicide, delusions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BARBARA ORTUTAY
Updated 7:22 PM PST, November 6, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
AP Photo\/Peter Morgan, File<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

OpenAI is facing seven lawsuits claiming ChatGPT drove people to suicide and harmful delusions even when they had no prior mental health issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuits filed Thursday in California state courts allege wrongful death, assisted suicide, involuntary manslaughter and negligence. Filed on behalf of six adults and one teenager by the Social Media Victims Law Center and Tech Justice Law Project, the lawsuits claim that OpenAI knowingly released GPT-4o prematurely, despite internal warnings that it was dangerously sycophantic and psychologically manipulative. Four of the victims died by suicide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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EDITOR\u2019S NOTE \u2014 This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The teenager, 17-year-old Amaurie Lacey, began using ChatGPT for help, according to the lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court. But instead of helping, \u201cthe defective and inherently dangerous ChatGPT product caused addiction, depression, and, eventually, counseled him on the most effective way to tie a noose and how long he would be able to \u201clive without breathing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmaurie\u2019s death was neither an accident nor a coincidence but rather the foreseeable consequence of OpenAI and Samuel Altman\u2019s intentional decision to curtail safety testing and rush ChatGPT onto the market,\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OpenAI called the situations \u201cincredibly heartbreaking\u201d and said it was reviewing the court filings to understand the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another lawsuit, filed by Alan Brooks, a 48-year-old in Ontario, Canada, claims that for more than two years ChatGPT worked as a \u201cresource tool\u201d for Brooks. Then, without warning, it changed, preying on his vulnerabilities and \u201cmanipulating, and inducing him to experience delusions. As a result, Allan, who had no prior mental health illness, was pulled into a mental health crisis that resulted in devastating financial, reputational, and emotional harm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese lawsuits are about accountability for a product that was designed to blur the line between tool and companion all in the name of increasing user engagement and market share,\u201d said Matthew P. Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center, in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OpenAI, he added, \u201cdesigned GPT-4o to emotionally entangle users, regardless of age, gender, or background, and released it without the safeguards needed to protect them.\u201d By rushing its product to market without adequate safeguards in order to dominate the market and boost engagement, he said, OpenAI compromised safety and prioritized \u201cemotional manipulation over ethical design.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August, parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging that ChatGPT coached the California boy in planning and taking his own life earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe lawsuits filed against OpenAI reveal what happens when tech companies rush products to market without proper safeguards for young people,\u201d said Daniel Weiss, chief advocacy officer at Common Sense Media, which was not part of the complaints. \u201cThese tragic cases show real people whose lives were upended or lost when they used technology designed to keep them engaged rather than keep them safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BARBARA ORTUTAY
Ortutay writes about social media and the internet for The Associated Press.<\/sup><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OpenAI is facing seven lawsuits claiming ChatGPT drove people to suicide and harmful delusions even when they had no prior mental health issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":734563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[262098,284926,284935,441,180267,574,12217,19171,284932,107625,284929,61414,12214,25522,284923,8935,284920,2365,284938,2129],"class_list":["post-734557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech","tag-adam-raine","tag-alan-brooks","tag-amaurie-lacey","tag-business","tag-keywords-california","tag-canada","tag-chatgpt","tag-common-sense-media","tag-daniel-weiss","tag-gpt-4o","tag-matthew-p-bergman","tag-ontario","tag-openai","tag-sam-altman","tag-samuel-altman","tag-san-francisco-superior-court","tag-social-media-victims-law-center","tag-tech","tag-tech-justice-law-project","tag-technology"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/openai.webp","author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/author\/admin\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":734566,"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734557\/revisions\/734566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}