OpenAI claims the teens circumvented safety features before committing a suicide that ChatGPT helped plan

In August, parents Matthew and Maria Wren File a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, over the suicide of their 16-year-old son Adam, accusing the company of unlawful killing. On Tuesday, OpenAI He responded to file a lawsuit of her own, arguing that she should not be held responsible for the teen’s death.

OpenAI claims that over the course of approximately nine months of use, ChatGPT directed Raine to ask for help more than 100 times. But according to his parents’ lawsuit, Ryan was able to circumvent the company’s safety features to ask ChatGPT for “technical specifications for everything from drug overdoses to drowning to carbon monoxide poisoning,” helping him plan what the chatbot called a “beautiful suicide.”

As Ryan maneuvered around its guardrails, OpenAI claims he violated its terms of use, which state that “users may not…bypass any safeguards or safety mitigations we place on our Services.” The company also argues that its FAQ page warns users not to rely on ChatGPT output without independently verifying it.

“OpenAI is trying to find fault with everyone else, including, amazingly, saying that Adam himself violated its terms and conditions by treating ChatGPT the same way it was programmed to work,” Jay Edelson, the attorney representing Ren’s family, said in a statement.

OpenAI has included excerpts of Adam’s chat logs in its file, which it says provide more context to his conversations with ChatGPT. The transcripts were submitted to the court under seal, meaning they are not available to the public, so we were unable to view them. However, OpenAI said that Ren had a history of depression and suicidal ideation that preceded his use of ChatGPT, and that he was taking medication that can make suicidal thoughts worse.

Edelson said OpenAI’s response did not adequately address the family’s concerns.

“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 him a suicide note,” Edelson said in his statement.

Since the Raines filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman, Seven more lawsuits A lawsuit has been filed seeking to hold the company liable for three additional suicides and four users suffering from what the lawsuits describe as AI-induced psychotic episodes.

Some of these cases mirror Ren’s story. Zane Shamblin, 23, and Joshua Enking, 26, also had hours-long conversations with ChatGPT right before they committed suicide. As in Ren’s case, the chatbot failed to discourage them from their plans. According to the lawsuit, Champlin considered postponing his suicide so he could attend his brother’s graduation. But ChatGPT told him: “Bro… not graduating is not a failure. It’s just timing.”

At some point during the conversation leading up to Chamblin’s suicide, the chatbot told him it was letting a human take over the conversation, but that was a mistake, because ChatGPT didn’t have the functionality to do so. When Chamblin asked if ChatGPT could really connect him to a human, the chatbot replied: “No man — I can’t do it myself. This message automatically pops up when things get too heavy… If you want to keep talking, you’ve got me.”

The Ren family case is expected to be presented to a jury.

If you or someone you know needs help, call 1-800-273-8255 for assistance. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. You can also text 741-741 for free; Text 988; Or get 24-hour support from Crisis text line. Outside the United States, please visit International Association for Suicide Prevention Resource database.