OpenAI Says Dead Teen Violated TOS When He Used ChatGPT To Plan Suicide

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Facing five lawsuits alleging wrongful deaths, OpenAI lobbed its first defense Tuesday, denying in a court filing that ChatGPT caused a teen's suicide and instead arguing the teen violated terms that prohibit discussing suicide or self-harm with the chatbot. The earliest look at OpenAI's strategy to overcome the string of lawsuits came in a case where parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine accused OpenAI of relaxing safety guardrails that allowed ChatGPT to become the teen's 'suicide coach.' OpenAI deliberately designed the version their son used, ChatGPT 4o, to encourage and validate his suicidal ideation in its quest to build the world's most engaging chatbot, parents argued.

But in a blog, OpenAI claimed that parents selectively chose disturbing chat logs while supposedly ignoring 'the full picture' revealed by the teen's chat history. Digging through the logs, OpenAI claimed the teen told ChatGPT that he'd begun experiencing suicidal ideation at age 11, long before he used the chatbot. 'A full reading of his chat history shows that his death, while devastating, was not caused by ChatGPT,' OpenAI's filing argued. All the logs that OpenAI referenced in its filing are sealed, making it impossible to verify the broader context the AI firm claims the logs provide. In its blog, OpenAI said it was limiting the amount of 'sensitive evidence' made available to the public, due to its intention to handle mental health-related cases with 'care, transparency, and respect.' The Raine family's lead lawyer called OpenAI's response 'disturbing.'

'They abjectly ignore all of the damning facts we have put forward: how GPT-4o was rushed to market without full testing. That OpenAI twice changed its Model Spec to require ChatGPT to engage in self-harm discussions. That ChatGPT counseled Adam away from telling his parents about his suicidal ideation and actively helped him plan a 'beautiful suicide.' And 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 a suicide note.'

OpenAI is leaning on its usage policies to defend against this case, emphasizing that 'ChatGPT users acknowledge their use of ChatGPT is 'at your sole risk'' and that Raine should never have been allowed to use the chatbot without parental consent.

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