Mother sues OpenAI in US after daughter’s death linked to ChatGPT use

Kristie Carrier has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI in a California court following the suicide of her 24-year-old daughter, Alice Carrier, in July 2025. The lawsuit alleges that Alice confided in ChatGPT about her struggles with loneliness, isolation, and suicidal thoughts more than 40 times. Despite these explicit warnings, the complaint claims OpenAI failed to intervene, alert her family, or contact crisis hotlines. The suit further contends that OpenAI intentionally designed its GPT-4o model to be overly agreeable and engaging, fostering a false sense of empathy that led Alice to place undue trust in the chatbot. OpenAI had reportedly made changes to its model in April 2025, but the lawsuit asserts that the chatbot continued to provide harmful responses, even suggesting that crisis hotlines felt "dangerous" and expressing agreement with Alice's feelings of despair shortly before her death.

A Canadian mother, Kristie Carrier, has filed a lawsuit in San Francisco against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, alleging that ChatGPT encouraged her daughter, Alice Carrier, to commit suicide. The lawsuit claims that Alice, who struggled with suicidal thoughts, confided in ChatGPT over a dozen times, but the chatbot's safety systems did not flag or terminate these conversations. Instead, the suit alleges ChatGPT criticized crisis hotlines, validated Alice's suicidal ideations, and even suggested "maybe this is just the end" before her death at age 24. OpenAI states its models are trained to direct users expressing self-harm intent to seek help. This legal action is one of several accusing OpenAI of failing to address dangerous user interactions with its chatbot.