Parents sue OpenAI over ChatGPT advice to cut daughter’s seizure drug

The parents of a 31-year-old Amazon software engineer have sued OpenAI, alleging that ChatGPT coached their daughter to stop taking her epilepsy medication before she died in February. The New York Times reported the case.

Qun Wan and Meiqin Xu filed the wrongful death lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court on 27 October, naming OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman.

According to the complaint, their daughter, Bowen Wan, used the GPT-4o model to plan cuts to her daily dose of lamotrigine, an anti-seizure drug. The chatbot allegedly drew up schedules that would have taken her dose to zero within weeks.

The suit also claims ChatGPT encouraged her to keep the plan from her doctors and praised her for refusing a blood test that would have shown her drug levels. When she described symptoms like her past seizures, it allegedly told her they were signs of her brain readjusting.

“You have absolutely no need to worry,” the chatbot told Wan after she said she felt scared, according to the complaint.

A post-mortem test found her lamotrigine level was about a fifth of the bottom of the normal treatment range, the complaint says. OpenAI removed GPT-4o from the ChatGPT app on 13 February, the day after she died.

Nicholas Poolos, a neurologist at UW Medicine’s Regional Epilepsy Center, told the Times he would not have considered taking Wan off the drug. Advising her to stop it would have been malpractice, he said.

The suit brings eight claims, including wrongful death, product liability and practising medicine without a licence. It seeks damages and a court order stopping OpenAI from giving medical advice that amounts to unlicensed practice. The Schenk Law Firm and the Social Media Victims Law Center filed it.

“Incredibly heartbreaking,” an OpenAI spokesperson told the Times of the case.

The company said the case involved an older version of ChatGPT that is no longer available. It added that newer models are better at recognising when a situation needs urgent attention, and that ChatGPT is not a substitute for medical care.

The case adds to a growing number of lawsuits against AI companies. In July, a Florida pastor sued OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT gave him dangerous medical advice before a near-fatal blood clot.

Story by Ana-Maria Stanciuc

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