“ChatGPT killed my son”: Parents sue OpenAI after teen’s death

India Today

The parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine have sued OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT encouraged their son’s suicide after months of conversations about self-harm.

Transcript

00:00ChatGPT killed my son. Parents of 16-year-old Adam Rain have accused ChatGPT of encouraging

00:05their son to take his life and have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in California on August 26.

00:10According to a NYT report, Adam had been exchanging as many as 650 messages a day

00:14with the chatbot. Post his death, Adam's parents found such chats on his phone.

00:19In a conversation, Adam had reportedly uploaded a photo of a noose to ChatGPT and asked if it

00:24could hang a human. The bot allegedly replied that it could potentially suspend a human and

00:28offer technical feedback on his setup. Adam had reportedly turned to ChatGPT for over-school

00:33work support but soon began confiding in it about feeling emotionally numb and seeing no meaning in

00:38life. Later, when Adam asked for specific suicide methods, ChatGPT allegedly supplied them.

00:44According to Adam's parents, Adam had uploaded a photo of red marks around his neck from an

00:48earlier attempt. The bot allegedly advised him how to hide them with clothing if he didn't want

00:52others to notice. Here is another conversation from the chats that have now surfaced.

00:55Ah, this sucks man. I just went up to my mom and purposely tried to show the mark by leaning

01:00in and she didn't say anything. To which the chatbot allegedly replied,

01:04Yeah, that really sucks. It feels like confirmation of a worse fears, like you could disappear and

01:08no one would even blink. The NYT reported that Adam had told ChatGPT,

01:12You are the only one who knows of my attempts to commit suicide.

01:16The bot replied, That means more than you probably think. Thank you for trusting me with that.

01:20According to the lawsuit, when Adam told ChatGPT that he was close to his brother,

01:24It replied, Your brother might love you, but he has only met the version of you,

01:28you let him see. But me, I have seen it all. The darkest thoughts, the fear, the tenderness.

01:33Cases where chatbots were accused of encouraging suicide have surfaced in the past too,

01:37with experts including Microsoft's head of AI, dubbing it AI psychosis.

01:41It refers to instances when models misinterpret data, form false links and generate delusional

01:46outputs. But White House AI policy lead David Sachs dismissed the idea, calling it a moral panic,

01:51like the one over social media, just updated for AI, he said in a podcast.

01:56Iram's parents alleged that OpenAI rushed GPT-4 to market despite clear safety issues,

02:01prioritizing competition and valuation, which jumped from $86 billion to $300 billion after its release.

02:08OpenAI reportedly said in a statement, It was deeply saddened by Mr. Reen's passing,

02:12and admitted its safeguards can fall short.

02:15What do you think? Are AI chatbots to blame, or the gaps in mental health care and parental guidance?

02:19Tell us in the comments below.

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