OpenAI denies allegations that its ChatGPT chatbot caused the death of 16-year-old Adam Rain, who died in April this year after months of communicating with the system. The teenager's parents sued the company in the first lawsuit over the fatal consequences of AI use. This is stated in the material published by Sky News, writes UNN.
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In a legal response, the company stated that Adam "misused" the chatbot.
To the extent that any "cause" can be attributed to this tragic event, the likely injuries and harm to the plaintiffs were caused or contributed to, directly and immediately, wholly or in part, by Adam Rain's misuse, unauthorized use, unintended use, unforeseen use, and/or improper use of ChatGPT.
OpenAI emphasized that the teenager should not have used the chatbot without parental consent, for "suicide" or "self-harm," or circumvent ChatGPT's safety measures. The company's blog stresses that the goal is to "address mental health-related lawsuits with caution, transparency, and respect."
We express our deepest condolences to the Rain family for their incredible loss.
At the same time, the family's lawyer, Jay Edelson, told Sky News that the company's reaction "shows that they are hesitant." According to him, ChatGPT 4o was deliberately designed to relentlessly engage, encourage, and affirm its users, especially people experiencing mental health crises, for whom OpenAI specifically lowered the restrictions with the launch of 4o.
Edelson added that the company's management, long before the lawsuit was filed, told the world that they knew these decisions had caused people, especially young people, to share the most intimate details of their lives with ChatGPT, using it as a therapist or life coach.
OpenAI knows that the fawning version of its chatbot encouraged users to commit suicide or incited them to harm third parties.
He also added: "OpenAI's response to this? The company is exempt from liability because it hid something in the terms. If this is what OpenAI plans to prove to a jury, it only shows that they are failing."