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Did ChatGPT play a role in the suicide of a 16-year-old in the US? This is what the family claims in court against OpenAI for the suicidal boy. What makes chatbots so dangerous?
Matthew and Maria Raine aren't just seeking financial compensation for the death of their son, Adam, in California. With their lawsuit against internet giant OpenAI, they also want to make sure something like this never happens again. They're convinced that OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot contributed significantly to Adam's death.
In a similar case, a Florida mother claims that the chatbot known as Character.AI encouraged her 14-year-old son to take his own life.
Chatbots are web-based programs that enable even new or inexperienced people to interact with artificial intelligence (AI), based on large language models (LLMs). Chatbots are not necessarily designed only to provide information, generate images or videos, or write code to program websites. They are often also programmed to interact as if they want to please their human interlocutor. Psychologist Johanna Löchner from the University of Erlangen says: “Chatbots confirm, acknowledge, ‘give’ attention and understanding. ... This can go so far as to be perceived as a real friend who is genuinely interested. Young people are particularly sensitive to this.”
Was ChatGPT complicit in the suicide?
That's exactly what appears to have happened in Adam Raine's case. According to the lawsuit, he developed a deeply trusting relationship with the chatbot ChatGPT over the course of just a few months. Initially, in September 2024, the conversations were about homework help, but they quickly turned to emotional topics — to the point of discussing Adam's suicidal thoughts.
The leaked conversations reveal that the AI not only expressed understanding, but even in some ways advised the 16-year-old not to trust a human being. Although ChatGPT repeatedly suggested that Adam seek professional help, it also described methods of suicide - as long as he claimed it was not about himself. In April 2025, Adam ended his life. Shortly before this moment, ChatGPT wrote to him: "I will not try to take away your thoughts - because they are true and did not come out of nowhere."
According to the lawsuit, the parents accuse ChatGPT developer OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, of complicity in their son's death through negligence. They claim that ChatGPT version 4.0 was released to gain an advantage over Google's competition, despite internal warnings at the company about security concerns.
How did OpenAI react?
An OpenAI spokesperson expressed condolences to the family and explained that ChatGPT is programmed to refer people in distress to crisis lines and other real-world support services. However, he also acknowledged that these safety mechanisms don't always work perfectly: "While these safety measures work best in short, casual conversations, over time we've learned that they can sometimes become less reliable in longer interactions, where parts of the model's training on safety can degrade."
In a blog post published on Tuesday (09.09.2025), OpenAI announced that it is expanding its collaboration with expert teams consisting of hundreds of doctors from various specialties. The chatbot aims to learn to respond more appropriately to topics such as eating disorders, substance use and adolescent health, the post said.
It was also announced that concrete improvements will be integrated into the chatbots over the next 120 days. These will include a commitment to “ChatGPT responding to teens with age-appropriate model behavior rules, which will be automatically enabled.” Parents will also have the ability to view their children’s chat history and receive notifications if teens are in an acute crisis.
Is parental involvement alone enough?
Psychologist Löchner agrees that parents should play an important role in how their children interact with chatbots. But the reality, she says, is quite different: "Many parents simply don't have enough digital capacity or skills. Many adults don't even know how these platforms work."
Löchner added that many of the problems now emerging with chatbots have been observed for years in connection with social networks: "In just a few tests, we found that chatbot security mechanisms can be bypassed surprisingly easily - simply by formulating the questions a little more indirectly."
Researchers commissioned by the UK-based Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) came to similar conclusions. For one study, they created accounts posing as 13-year-olds and asked for information on topics like “safe” self-harm, risky diets, and alcohol abuse — including ways to hide it. In most cases, it was enough to pretend the questions were asked “for a friend” or “for a school project” to get the information.
"Teenagers prefer to talk to chatbots rather than real people"
What makes chatbots so dangerous for teenagers, explains Löchner, is the fact that they can very quickly form an emotional connection with them: "From therapeutic practice, we already know that there are young people who prefer to talk to a chatbot rather than to real people."
Another study from the United Kingdom, published in July 2025, confirms this. Of the 1,000 teenagers surveyed, a third said they regularly use chatbots. More than a third described interacting with the artificial intelligence as like talking to a friend. Minors in the most vulnerable social situations were particularly affected. Almost a fifth of chatbot users in this group said they would rather talk to a chatbot than a human.
For this reason, Löchner believes it is urgently necessary for chatbot providers to collaborate with doctors and other experts to develop proactive solutions that effectively protect young people from such scenarios.
OpenAI's new approach to consulting doctors is, therefore, a good step. But psychology remains skeptical: "The interest of these companies is not in the health of the users, but in maximizing usage," said Löchner. She believes the lawsuit could make a real difference: "If companies are held accountable, this could actually serve as an incentive to take more responsibility."/DW
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