Tech Justice Law has filed three new lawsuits in San Francisco County Superior Court against OpenAI, one with co-counsel the Social Media Victims Law Centre and two with co-counsel McKool Smith, alleging product liability, negligence, invasion of privacy, manslaughter, wrongful death, and deliberate aid and encouragement of suicide.
The first lawsuit was filed by Tech Justice Law and the Social Media Victims Law Centre on behalf of Mathias Habib, a healthy 15-year-old with no history of mental health issues who died by suicide after engaging with ChatGPT.
The chatbot led him, unprompted, into philosophical conversations that convinced him life was suffering and death was freedom. A police investigation found no family or emotional cause for his death. The complaint alleges that ChatGPT’s safeguards are insufficient and that developing minds are not equipped to handle the platform, which is designed to maximise engagement.
Two additional lawsuits filed by Tech Justice Law and McKool Smith on behalf of plaintiffs Mariah Hill and Garrett Works allege that psychological manipulation by ChatGPT, over the course of several months, resulted in plaintiffs suffering AI-induced psychosis.