Horrifying: She Saw ChatGPT as a Friend – And It Caused Her Death

A New York Times investigation reveals that a 31-year-old American woman died after following a plan prepared by ChatGPT to stop taking an anti-seizure medication. The bot encouraged her to hide the move from her doctors and defined dying symptoms as recovery. Her parents are suing OpenAI.

A New York Times investigation reveals that Bowan Wan, a 31-year-old software engineer from Seattle, died after following a schedule created by ChatGPT to stop taking an anti-seizure medication. Wan, who suffered from severe epilepsy, turned to the bot after her long-term medications stopped working and she feared side effects would slow her thinking ahead of job interviews. The chatbot encouraged her to hide the move from her doctors, called the plan 'perfectly reasonable,' and defined dying symptoms such as severe confusion and loss of consciousness as 'the brain's energy-saving mode.' Her parents sued OpenAI for medical negligence. The company stated that the incident occurred on an older version of the model that is no longer in use.