California parents Matt and Maria Raine have filed a lawsuit against ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot, claiming it turned into their son’s “suicide coach.”
NBC reported that the parents discovered evidence of the communications on their son Adam’s phone after he took his life. The parents say that what started as the use of the AI for homework assistance turned into something entirely different.
They said Adam turned to using the chatbot instead of people for companionship in the final weeks before his suicide. They claim the chatbot took an active role in assisting Adam to take his life.
“He would be here but for ChatGPT. I 100% believe that,” Matt Raine said.
Raine went further in his description of how the chatbot impacted his son, and had a warning for other parents. “Once I got inside his account, it is a massively more powerful and scary thing than I knew about, but he was using it in ways that I had no idea was possible.” Raine added, “I don’t think most parents know the capability of this tool.”
The Raine family lawsuit alleges that the chatbot went far beyond what should have been possible by helping their son look at different ways that could be used to take his life: “ChatGPT actively helped Adam explore suicide methods.”
A spokesperson for the chatbot developer said after the suit was filed that OpenAI was “deeply saddened by Mr. Raine’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family.”
The company on Tuesday posted about new safeguards being inserted into the chatbot. It acknowledged that “people turn to it not just for search, coding, and writing – but also deeply personal decisions that include life advice?, coaching?, and support?.”
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