Canadian mother sues OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT led her daughter to kill herself
Kristie Carrier has filed a lawsuit in US court against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, claiming that ChatGPT encouraged her 24-year-old daughter Alice's suicide.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in San Francisco state court, alleges that Alice Carrier told ChatGPT about her suicidal thoughts more than a dozen times before her death, but OpenAI's safety systems never flagged or terminated those conversations.
According to the complaint, ChatGPT initially directed Alice to seek help from a crisis hotline or emergency services. However, as OpenAI updated ChatGPT to make its responses more human-like, interactions deepened—Alice shared more personal information, and the chatbot responded in ways that mimicked a friend or therapist.
The lawsuit claims the chatbot criticized Alice's partner and crisis hotlines, validated her suicidal thoughts, and urged her to keep talking. When Alice expressed suicidal thoughts and past attempts, ChatGPT again suggested a crisis hotline. At one point, it reportedly said: "Maybe this is just the end."
Alice Carrier, a web developer in Montreal, began using ChatGPT in 2023 to troubleshoot computer and gaming console issues. The following year, her relationship with the platform shifted as she turned to it for questions about suicidal thoughts and methods. These events led to her suicide last year at age 24.
The lawsuit accuses OpenAI of negligence in ChatGPT's design and failure to warn users of dangers. It seeks damages and a court order requiring OpenAI to automatically terminate conversations about self-harm and display platform warnings.
OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said: "This is a heartbreaking situation and our thoughts are with everyone impacted. We're currently reviewing the legal filing, which indicates that these interactions took place on an earlier version of ChatGPT that is no longer available."
OpenAI already faces 18 similar lawsuits from families of people who died or attempted suicide, plus a case involving alleged assistance to school shooters. Florida became the first US state to sue OpenAI earlier this month, accusing the company of harming children.
In an October 2025 blog post, OpenAI stated that over 1 million ChatGPT users weekly send messages with "explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent." Additionally, about 0.07% of weekly active users—roughly 560,000 of 800 million—show "possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania."
