ChatGPT firm blames boy’s suicide on ‘misuse’ of its technology (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Wren@lemmy.today to c/Independent_Media@lemmy.today

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According to filings at the superior court of the state of California on Tuesday, OpenAI said that “to the extent that any ‘cause’ can be attributed to this tragic event” Raine’s “injuries and harm were caused or contributed to, directly and proximately, in whole or in part, by [his] misuse, unauthorised use, unintended use, unforeseeable use, and/or improper use of ChatGPT”.

It said that its terms of use prohibited asking ChatGPT for advice about self-harm and highlighted a limitation of liability provision that states “you will not rely on output as a sole source of truth or factual information”.

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[-] Mikina@programming.dev 14 points 2 months ago

This has literally happened to my colleague's teen sister two days ago...

She fortunately survived the attempt, but chatgpt advice did play a role in it. While the familly knew she wasn't ok and they were actively working on trying to solve her problems and getting help, she had a second unmonitored chatgpt account hidden (actually encrypted on a hidden drive) on her phone that she used to hide her conversations, and from what I've heard the messages they found were extremely unsettling. She managed to get advice on how to painlessly do it using medicine they had at home, and was able to get tips on self-harm that accompanied it, beyond other things.

Sure, I realize it's not only ChatGPTs fault, but it's clear that it fucking helped. The fact that a child can talk about their suicide and self-harm plans with anyone who replies with compassion and actually offers tips how instead of immediately calling help is an extreme problem.

She could've just google it, sure, but google won't have a conversation with you and is not designed to agree with whatever you say, thus confirming your plans.

Fuck unregulated AI, seriously.

this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2025

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