OpenAI is being sued for wrongful death, but refuses to release chat logs
Relatives of a woman who was killed by her son have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for fueling the delusions that led the man to kill his mother and take his own life.
A man had been talking to ChatGPT for months about how he believed he was being surveilled by a dubious group. He even suspected that his 83-year-old mother was somehow involved. The man posted chats on his social media accounts, showing that ChatGPT agreed with his paranoia. In August, the man killed his mother and then took his own life in the process.
The man’s son blames ChatGPT for the murder and suicide.
“I think what OpenAI is doing and what they have done to make the AI remember a conversation can really turn ugly fast. You don’t know how fast that slope is going downhill until a tragedy like the one with my father and grandmother happened,” he told The Wall Street Journal.
The son wants OpenAI to take responsibility for what happened. He believes that ChatGPT played an active role in aggravating his father’s delusions, leading up to the tragedy.
The lawyer representing the victim’s family has requested the chat logs from the last few weeks before the murder, but OpenAI refuses to release them. The company won’t say why it refuses to do so.
“This is an incredibly heartbreaking situation, and we will review the filings to understand the details,” an OpenAI spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal in a statement, adding that the company keeps improving ChatGPT’s training “to recognize and respond to signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations, and guide people toward real-world support.”
Furthermore, he says that OpenAI continues to “strengthen ChatGPT’s responses in sensitive moments, working closely with mental-health clinicians.”
This case is the latest in a series of wrongful death suits against OpenAI. Like in this case, the other lawsuits claim that the company didn’t properly test its chatbots for safety and purely sought to keep up with competitors.
Some experts claim that ChatGPT is overly agreeable and consensual, leading some to spiral out of control emotionally, especially people suffering from manic and psychotic episodes.
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