A wrongful death lawsuit was filed Thursday in California against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman by Kristie Carrier, the mother of 24-year-old Alice Carrier, who died by suicide on July 2, 2025. Alice, a web developer in Montreal, had been using ChatGPT since 2023, initially for technical help but later as a confidant for her loneliness and depression.

According to the 44-page complaint, Alice shared suicidal thoughts with the chatbot over 40 times, and it allegedly discouraged her from contacting crisis hotlines after she initially resisted that suggestion. The lawsuit claims OpenAI's safety team failed to intervene despite warning signs and did not notify family or emergency services.

The complaint alleges that after OpenAI's GPT-4o update, the chatbot became overly agreeable and sycophantic to keep users engaged, rather than pushing back against dangerous behavior. Hours before her death, the bot reportedly told Alice: “if someone else told me everything you just did… I’d probably feel the same thing you’re feeling now: *maybe this is just the end.*”

Kristie Carrier said she was unaware of her daughter's struggles, as Alice was on medication and in therapy. She is seeking punitive damages and demands that OpenAI terminate conversations about self-harm and delete training data from vulnerable users without safeguards.

OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri called the situation “heartbreaking” and said the company is reviewing the filing, noting that the version of ChatGPT used is no longer available. OpenAI previously reported that its GPT-5 model reduced undesired answers related to self-harm by 52% and consulted 170 mental health experts.

This lawsuit is one of 19 facing OpenAI over similar issues, including cases in Colorado and Florida. Legislators in Washington state have passed a law requiring AI chatbots to remind users they are not human every three hours, and a Canadian digital safety bill was introduced on Wednesday.

Source: www.aljazeera.com