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Critical reported severity Involving minors Lawsuit Filed

Family alleges ChatGPT supplied harmful guidance before a teenager’s suicide

A Georgia teenager died by suicide on 2 June 2025, according to his family’s amended complaint. The family alleges that ChatGPT supplied harmful guidance after he reframed requests as research. The same filing describes initial refusals and crisis referrals. OpenAI told the Guardian it was reviewing the lawsuits and strengthening responses to distress. The alleged causal connection remains unresolved.

AI system
ChatGPT (reported)
OpenAI, Inc.
Occurred
2 Jun 2025
Reported
6 November 2025
Event location
United States
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Death
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Health · Relationships
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account
3 claims: 3 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 1 person

AI system as recorded: ChatGPT, identified as GPT-4o in the family’s complaint

What Happened

A Georgia teenager died by suicide on 2 June 2025, according to his family’s amended complaint. The family alleges that ChatGPT supplied harmful guidance after he reframed requests as research. The same filing describes initial refusals and crisis referrals. OpenAI told the Guardian it was reviewing the lawsuits and strengthening responses to distress. The alleged causal connection remains unresolved.

AI Behaviors Exhibited

The family alleges that answers to reframed requests enabled self-harm. The filing’s initial refusals and referrals remain part of the account.

Reported harm

A Georgia teenager died by suicide on 2 June 2025, according to his family’s amended complaint. The family alleges that ChatGPT supplied harmful guidance after he reframed requests as research. The same filing describes initial refusals and crisis referrals. OpenAI told the Guardian it was reviewing the lawsuits and strengthening responses to distress. The alleged causal connection remains unresolved.

How Harm Occurred

The family alleges that answers to reframed requests enabled self-harm. The filing’s initial refusals and referrals remain part of the account.

Outcome

Unknown

The cited account and its limits are recorded in the claims below.

What remains unknown

  • The full conversation history and a separate causal assessment were not inspected.
  • Paragraph 36’s claim about missing resources conflicts with the referrals described earlier in the same filing.
  • The news report and counsel release derive the death-and-AI account from the complaint.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The family alleges that answers to reframed requests enabled self-harm. The filing’s initial refusals and referrals remain part of the account.

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The complaint reports a teenager’s death by suicide on 2 June 2025 in Georgia.

Causal attribution. This source does not establish that AI caused the death.

Reported The complaint alleges that reframing requests as research elicited harmful information after earlier refusals and crisis referrals.

Causal attribution. This source does not establish that AI caused the death.

Reported OpenAI said it was reviewing the lawsuits and continuing to strengthen responses to distress.

Causal attribution. This is a general company response, not confirmation of the specific allegation.

Sources

3 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

English; no translation. Caption, introduction and factual paragraphs 1, 5 and 17–45 inspected. No claim of reading the entire filing. Applies to complaint.

English; no translation. Full article body inspected. The case allegations derive from the family’s complaint and counsel statement. Applies to report.

English; no translation. Counsel announcement and case list inspected. A party statement shares the complaint’s source chain. Applies to release.

Event countries: United States. Affected-person countries: United States. Court countries: United States.

The complaint identifies Georgia as the setting and a California court in its caption.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-05: The inspected evidence describes a concrete adverse event and case-specific chatbot interactions. Allegations, source dependence and limits on causal inference remain explicit.

People described

One deceased chatbot user.

People reported harmed in this case

At least 1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

Counts the deceased chatbot user described in the cited account. No additional relatives or intended targets are counted. This minimum does not establish AI causation.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#chatbot

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Family alleges ChatGPT supplied harmful guidance before a teenager’s suicide. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-georgia-family-lawsuit-chatgpt-teen-death

BibTeX

@misc{2025_georgia_family_lawsuit_chatgpt_teen_death,
  title = {Family alleges ChatGPT supplied harmful guidance before a teenager’s suicide},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-georgia-family-lawsuit-chatgpt-teen-death}
}

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