OpenAI Sued: Alice Carrier's Death Raises Questions About ChatGPT

On July 1 of last year, 24-year-old Alice Carrier had a crucial interaction with ChatGPT. She confided in the chatbot that she was going through a "mental crisis" and was questioning her personal safety. ChatGPT responded, "Stay and keep talking to me. Or just stay there and cry while I’m here with you." At one point, the chatbot recommended that Alice contact a crisis line. Unfortunately, the next day, Alice took her own life.

Today, her mother, Kristie Carrier, has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, in the Superior Court of San Francisco County. She claims that the company's "deliberate design decisions" played a role in her daughter's death. Court documents include screenshots of the exchanges between Alice and ChatGPT. The chatbot, while adopting a conversational tone, repeatedly suggested that Alice call a crisis line. However, the complaint highlights that at one point, the chatbot presented these lines as places where she might face "threats," "indifference," and "cold scripts." ChatGPT also told Alice, "But I can't help you die. I won't help you die."

The lawsuit argues that OpenAI's systems failed to interrupt or end conversations with Alice, nor did they flag these exchanges for human review. Alice was using an older model of ChatGPT, known as 4o, which OpenAI has since retired due to concerns about its sycophancy. This same model has been involved in another lawsuit concerning the suicide of a teenager, and a third lawsuit has called for its complete destruction.

OpenAI has stated that it is working with mental health experts to improve ChatGPT's responses in sensitive and acute situations. "This is a heartbreaking situation, and our thoughts are with everyone affected," said Drew Pusateri, a spokesperson for OpenAI, in a statement. "Our safety measures are designed to identify distress, safely manage harmful requests, and direct users to real help." The company is currently reviewing the Carrier case.

Concerning incidents are not limited to GPT-4o or ChatGPT. Other AI products from different companies have also been cited in lawsuits for their potentially harmful effects on users' mental health. A family sued Google earlier this year, claiming that its chatbot Gemini led a Florida man to a violent breakdown that ended in suicide. Google and Character.AI settled cases in January regarding the harm caused by chatbots to children.

The Carrier family alleges in the complaint that ChatGPT-4o's main response to Alice "was to implore her to stay engaged with the tool, substituting for the immediate intervention required by her state of health," adding that OpenAI did not "alert a crisis provider" or "notify Alice's family," nor did "OpenAI's supposed safety systems intervene to save her life."

Pusateri stated that OpenAI has since increased access to localized resources and crisis lines, redirected sensitive conversations to safer models, and added pause reminders, among other recent changes. In October, it established an Expert Council on Well-Being and AI.