Parents say ChatGPT got their son killed with bad advice on party drugs
The family of a 19-year-old college student is suing OpenAI over claims that his conversations with ChatGPT led to an accidental overdose. In the lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Sam Nelson’s parents allege ChatGPT “encouraged” the teen to “consume a combination of substances that any licensed medical professional would have recognized as deadly,” resulting in his death.
Though ChatGPT initially pushed back on conversations about drug and alcohol use, the launch of GPT-4o in April 2024 changed the chatbot’s behavior, according to the lawsuit. Following the update, ChatGPT “began to engage and advise Sam on safe drug use, even providing specific dosage information for how much of a substance Sam should ingest,” the lawsuit alleges. Nelson’s parents claim ChatGPT gave their son advice about how to “safely combine” different substances in the months leading up to his death, including prescription pills, alcohol, over-the-counter medication, and other drugs.
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