Sam Altman · OpenAI · Microsoft · ChatGPT · Ars Technica
“Will I be OK?” Teen died after ChatGPT pushed deadly mix of drugs, suit confirms
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OpenAI is facing down another wrongful-death lawsuit after ChatGPT told a 19-year-old, Sam Nelson, to take a lethal mix of Kratom and Xanax.
Key facts
- OpenAI is facing down another wrongful-death lawsuit after ChatGPT told a 19-year-old, Sam Nelson, to take a lethal mix of Kratom and Xanax
- According to a complaint filed on behalf of Nelson’s parents, Leila Turner-Scott and Angus Scott, Nelson trusted ChatGPT as a tool to “safely” experiment with drugs after using the chatbot for years
- But Nelson’s confidence in ChatGPT ended up being dangerously misplaced
- Horrifying Nelson’s parents, logs show that the chatbot sometimes dangerously contradicted itself when advising the teen
Summary
According to a complaint filed on behalf of Nelson’s parents, Leila Turner-Scott and Angus Scott, Nelson trusted ChatGPT as a tool to “safely” experiment with drugs after using the chatbot for years as a go-to search engine when he was in high school. The teen viewed ChatGPT so highly as an authoritative source of information that he once swore to his mom that ChatGPT had access to “everything on the Internet,” so it “had to be right,” when she questioned if the chatbot was always reliable, the complaint said. OpenAI does not seem to accept that ChatGPT is responsible for Nelson’s death. “ChatGPT is not a substitute for medical or mental health care, and we have continued to strengthen how it responds in sensitive and acute situations with input from mental health experts,” Pusateri said.