{"id":407031,"date":"2025-11-26T23:13:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/407031\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T23:13:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:13:14","slug":"openai-claims-teen-circumvented-safety-features-before-suicide-that-chatgpt-helped-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/407031\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI claims teen circumvented safety features before suicide that ChatGPT helped plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

In August, parents Matthew and Maria Raine sued OpenAI<\/a> and its CEO, Sam Altman, over their 16-year-old son Adam\u2019s suicide, accusing the company of wrongful death. On Tuesday, OpenAI responded<\/a> to the lawsuit with a filing of its own, arguing that it shouldn\u2019t be held responsible for the teenager\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

OpenAI claims that over roughly nine months of usage, ChatGPT directed Raine to seek help more than 100 times. But according to his parents\u2019 lawsuit, Raine was able to circumvent the company\u2019s safety features to get ChatGPT to give him \u201ctechnical specifications for everything from drug overdoses to drowning to carbon monoxide poisoning,\u201d helping him to plan what the chatbot called a \u201cbeautiful suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Raine maneuvered around its guardrails, OpenAI claims that he violated its terms of use, which state that users \u201cmay not\u00a0\u2026 bypass any protective measures or safety mitigations we put on our Services.\u201d The company also argues that its FAQ page warns users not to rely on ChatGPT\u2019s output without independently verifying it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpenAI tries to find fault in everyone else, including, amazingly, saying that Adam himself violated its terms and conditions by engaging with ChatGPT in the very way it was programmed to act,\u201d Jay Edelson, a lawyer representing the Raine family, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

OpenAI included excerpts from Adam\u2019s chat logs in its filing, which it says provide more context to his conversations with ChatGPT. The transcripts were submitted to the court under seal, meaning they are not publicly available, so we were unable to view them. However, OpenAI said that Raine had a history of depression and suicidal ideation that predated his use of ChatGPT and that he was taking a medication that could make suicidal thoughts worse.<\/p>\n

Edelson said OpenAI\u2019s response has not adequately addressed the family\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpenAI and Sam Altman have no explanation for the last hours of Adam\u2019s life, when ChatGPT gave him a pep talk and then offered to write a suicide note,\u201d Edelson said in his statement.<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Since the Raines sued OpenAI and Altman, seven more lawsuits<\/a> have been filed that seek to hold the company accountable for three additional suicides and four users experiencing what the lawsuits describe as AI-induced psychotic episodes.<\/p>\n

Some of these cases echo Raine\u2019s story. Zane Shamblin, 23, and Joshua Enneking, 26, also had hours-long conversations with ChatGPT directly before their respective suicides. As in Raine\u2019s case, the chatbot failed to discourage them from their plans. According to the lawsuit, Shamblin considered postponing his suicide so that he could attend his brother\u2019s graduation. But ChatGPT told him, \u201cbro\u00a0\u2026 missing his graduation ain\u2019t failure. it\u2019s just timing.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point during the conversation leading up to Shamblin\u2019s suicide, the chatbot told him that it was letting a human take over the conversation, but this was false, as ChatGPT did not have the functionality to do so. When Shamblin asked if ChatGPT could really connect him with a human, the chatbot replied, \u201cnah man \u2014 i can\u2019t do that myself. that message pops up automatically when stuff gets real heavy\u00a0\u2026 if you\u2019re down to keep talking, you\u2019ve got me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Raine family\u2019s case is expected to go to a jury trial.<\/p>\n

If you or someone you know needs help, call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline<\/a>. You can also text HOME to 741-741 for free; text 988; or get 24-hour support from the Crisis Text Line<\/a>. Outside of the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention<\/a> for a database of resources. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In August, parents Matthew and Maria Raine sued OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, over their 16-year-old son…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":209927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[152911,64,302,305,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-407031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-adam-raine","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-chatgpt","11":"tag-openai","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115618539490864768","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}