Adam, from California, killed himself in April after what his family’s lawyer called “months of encouragement from ChatGPT”. The teenager’s family is suing Open AI and its chief executive and co-founder, Sam Altman, alleging that the version of ChatGPT at that time, known as 4o, was “rushed to market … despite clear safety issues”.
The teenager discussed a method of suicide with ChatGPT on several occasions, including shortly before taking his own life. According to the filing in the superior court of the state of California for the county of San Francisco, ChatGPT guided him on whether his method of taking his own life would work.
It also offered to help him write a suicide note to his parents.
I thought that, too, but then I asked ChatGPT. It says it’s not a glorified autocomplete, and that I definitely should continue to have conversations with it.
That’s exactly what a glorified auto complete would want you the think.
Hmm. Interesting counterpoint. Let me go run it by ChatGPT real quick to see if it’s correct.