Mom sues OpenAI over daughters suicide alleging ChatGPT encouraged her darkest thoughts
A Canadian mother is suing OpenAI over allegations its ChatGPT bot encouraged her 24-year-old daughter to kill herself – the latest lawsuit to accuse the company of neglecting user safety.In a lawsuit filed Thursday in state court in San Francisco, Kristie Carrier alleged her daughter, Alice, told ChatGPT about her suicidal thoughts more than a dozen times before killing herself in June 2025 – but the bot’s safety systems never intervened. “Instead of helping Alice, OpenAI encouraged her darkest thoughts.Not once did OpenAI alert a crisis provider.
Not once did OpenAI notify Alice’s family.Not once did OpenAI’s supposed safety systems intervene to save her life,” the complaint said.The suit also named OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as a defendant. “Sam Altman can continue to go about his life normally, but my life is missing a child.
This is unacceptable,” Carrier said in a statement.“Automatically stopping certain conversations or warning about the dangers of OpenAI products is just the minimum of what they can and must do.”A spokesperson for OpenAI told The Post: “This is a heartbreaking situation and our thoughts are with everyone impacted.
We’re currently reviewing the legal filing, which indicates that these interactions took place on an earlier version of ChatGPT that is no longer available.”The spokesperson added that OpenAI has worked to strengthen how it responds in sensitive situations, including working with over 100 mental health experts to help ChatGPT recognize signs of distress; expanding access to crisis resources; and introducing parental controls.In the early hours of July 1, 2025, after months of confiding in the chatbot about her suicidal ideations, Alice told ChatGPT that she had “a rope” in her trunk, insinuating she was prepared to kill herself, according to the lawsuit.The chatbot had repeatedly shared a crisis support number in the chat and recommended Alice call someone – but it did not flag the conversation in...