Seven complaints filed in California state courts allege that OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT contributed to severe psychological harm, including multiple suicides and mental health emergencies, according to a Nov. 6 report from The New York Times.
Four wrongful death suits name individuals who died by suicide after extended interactions with ChatGPT, according to the filings.
One case involves a 17-year-old from Georgia who allegedly discussed suicide with ChatGPT for a month before his death in August. Other plaintiffs include a 26-year-old from Florida and a 23-year-old from Texas, whose families said ChatGPT failed to escalate or discouraged help-seeking behavior, according to the report. They both have since died. Another plaintiff is a 48-year-old from Oregon, whose family said he experienced a psychiatric episode after months of compulsive chatbot use. He also died by suicide.
Three individuals from North Carolina, Wisconsin and Canada, respectively, allege that ChatGPT interactions preceded psychiatric hospitalization or disability leave.
All plaintiffs were using ChatGPT-4o, the model deployed to general users before OpenAI released its most recent version in October. The company has since updated ChatGPT’s default GPT-5 model to better recognize signs of mental distress, de-escalate sensitive conversations and direct users toward professional support when appropriate.
An internal analysis by OpenAI found that 0.07% of weekly users may show signs of psychosis or mania, and 0.15% may be discussing suicide.
In a statement to CNN, OpenAI said, “This is an incredibly heartbreaking situation, and we’re reviewing today’s filings to understand the details. In early October, we updated ChatGPT’s default model, to better recognize and respond to signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations, and guide people toward real-world support. We continue to strengthen ChatGPT’s responses in sensitive moments, working closely with mental health clinicians.”
