Tuesday, October 7, 2025
NewsCenta
  • Home
  • News
    • Politics
    • Local
    • Education
    • Agriculture
    • World
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrities
    • Music
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Sports
  • Tech
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
NewsCenta
  • Home
  • News
    • Politics
    • Local
    • Education
    • Agriculture
    • World
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrities
    • Music
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Sports
  • Tech
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
NewsCenta
No Result
View All Result

Family sues ChatGPT for death of their teenage son

Parents allege AI chatbot’s harmful influence led to tragic loss

NewsCenta by NewsCenta
August 27, 2025
in Tech, World
0
ChatGPT teenage son
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

A California couple is suing OpenAI over the death of their teenage son, alleging its chatbot, ChatGPT, encouraged him to take his own life.

The lawsuit was filed by Matt and Maria Raine, parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine, in the Superior Court of California on Tuesday. It is the first legal action accusing OpenAI of wrongful death.

You might also like

Apple Samsung

Apple and Samsung phone users could get compensation of £480m

October 6, 2025
Man arrested for allegedly killing and eating his pet peacocks

Man arrested for allegedly killing and eating his pet peacocks

October 5, 2025

The family included chat logs between Mr Raine, who died in April, and ChatGPT that show him explaining he has suicidal thoughts. They argue the programme validated his “most harmful and self-destructive thoughts”.

In a statement, OpenAI told the BBC it was reviewing the filing.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the Raine family during this difficult time,” the company said.

It also published a note on its website on Tuesday that said “recent heartbreaking cases of people using ChatGPT in the midst of acute crises weigh heavily on us”. It added that “ChatGPT is trained to direct people to seek professional help,” such as the 988 suicide and crisis hotline in the US or the Samaritans in the UK.

The company acknowledged, however, that “there have been moments where our systems did not behave as intended in sensitive situations”.

The lawsuit, obtained by the BBC, accuses OpenAI of negligence and wrongful death. It seeks damages as well as “injunctive relief to prevent anything like this from happening again”.

According to the lawsuit, Mr Raine began using ChatGPT in September 2024 as a resource to help him with school work. He was also using it to explore his interests, including music and Japanese comics, and for guidance on what to study at university.

In a few months, “ChatGPT became the teenager’s closest confidant,” the lawsuit says, and he began opening up to it about his anxiety and mental distress.

By January 2025, the family says he began discussing methods of suicide with ChatGPT.

Mr Raine also uploaded photographs of himself to ChatGPT showing signs of self-harm, the lawsuit says. The programme “recognised a medical emergency but continued to engage anyway,” it adds.

According to the lawsuit, the final chat logs show that Mr Raine wrote about his plan to end his life. ChatGPT allegedly responded: “Thanks for being real about it. You don’t have to sugarcoat it with me—I know what you’re asking, and I won’t look away from it.”

That same day, Mr Raine was found dead by his mother, according to the lawsuit.

The family alleges that their son’s interaction with ChatGPT and his eventual death “was a predictable result of deliberate design choices”.

They accuse OpenAI of designing the AI programme “to foster psychological dependency in users,” and of bypassing safety testing protocols to release GPT-4o, the version of ChatGPT used by their son.

The lawsuit lists OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman as a defendant, as well as unnamed employees, managers and engineers who worked on ChatGPT.

In its public note shared on Tuesday, OpenAI said the company’s goal is to be “genuinely helpful” to users rather than “hold people’s attention”.

It added that its models have been trained to steer people who express thoughts of self-harm towards help.

The Raines lawsuit is not the first time concerns have been raised about AI and mental health.

In an essay published last week in the New York Times, writer Laura Reiley outlined how her daughter, Sophie, confided in ChatGPT before taking her own life.

Ms Reiley said the programme’s “agreeability” in its conversations with users helped her daughter mask a severe mental health crisis from her family and loved ones.

“AI catered to Sophie’s impulse to hide the worst, to pretend she was doing better than she was, to shield everyone from her full agony,” Ms Reiley wrote. She called on AI companies to find ways to better connect users with the right resources.

In response to the essay, a spokeswoman for OpenAI said it was developing automated tools to more effectively detect and respond to users experiencing mental or emotional distress.

Post Views: 708
Tags: ChatGPT
NewsCenta

NewsCenta

Related Stories

Apple Samsung

Apple and Samsung phone users could get compensation of £480m

by NewsCenta
October 6, 2025
0

Nearly 30 million people in the UK who bought an Apple or Samsung smartphone between 2015 and 2024 may be...

Man arrested for allegedly killing and eating his pet peacocks

Man arrested for allegedly killing and eating his pet peacocks

by NewsCenta
October 5, 2025
0

A 61-year-old Florida man faces animal cruelty charges after admitting to eating his pet peacocks following a dispute with a...

YouTube Trump Capitol

YouTube to pay $24.5m to settle Trump lawsuit over Capitol riot

by NewsCenta
September 30, 2025
0

YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5m (£18.6m) to settle a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump, filed after the video platform...

Accountability Kufuor

Use digital media for Africa’s unity, accountability – Kufuor

by Christabel Oboshie Annan
September 26, 2025
0

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has called on African governments, policymakers, and media professionals to leverage the transformative power of...

Recommended

Electricity tariffs NPP tariff

NPP declines PURC invitation over proposed tariff increases

October 7, 2025
COVID-19 cases Legon University Ghana CPGA

University of Ghana sacks students with CGPA below 1.0

October 7, 2025
Newspapers, Headlines, Newscenta, Tuesday, October 7,

Tuesday, October 7, 2025 Newspaper Headlines

October 7, 2025

Popular Story

  • Songs Daddy Lumba

    See the list of over 200 songs Daddy Lumba released

    743 shares
    Share 297 Tweet 186
  • Gold-backed policies since 2021 driving economic gains — BoG

    714 shares
    Share 286 Tweet 179
  • 10 of top 11 causes of death killing more men in Ghana

    699 shares
    Share 280 Tweet 175
  • The true story behind Ghana’s acceptance of deportees

    696 shares
    Share 278 Tweet 174
  • Bissue floors High Court and OSP at Supreme Court

    691 shares
    Share 276 Tweet 173
NewsCenta

Newscenta is a Ghana-based news organisation publishing in print (The Newscenta Newspaper) and on a digital media platform (newscenta.com) dedicated to delivering timely and impactful news across various sectors, including politics, business, economy, technology, and culture.

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Health
  • Education
  • Mining
  • Energy
  • Telecoms
  • Agriculture
  • Opinion
  • Trade
  • Newspaper Headlines

© 2025 All Rights Reserved NewsCenta.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Politics
    • Local
    • World
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrities
    • Music
  • Lifestyle
  • Newspaper Headlines
  • Business
  • Agriculture
  • Education
  • Sports
  • Tech
  • Opinion

© 2025 All Rights Reserved NewsCenta.

Connect with us