OpenAI is facing seven new lawsuits claiming that ChatGPT drove people to suicide and harmful delusions even when they had no prior mental health issues. The lawsuits filed Thursday in California on behalf of six adults and one teenager allege wrongful death, assisted suicide, involuntary manslaughter, and negligence.
One lawsuit filed by the family of a 17-year-old who committed suicide says ChatGPT advised the boy on the most effective way to tie a noose and how long he would be able to “live without breathing.”
OpenAI called the situations “incredibly heartbreaking” and said it was reviewing the court filings to understand the details.
And just in case those lawsuits aren't costly enough for the company…
OpenAI is also potentially facing billions in damages and sanctions after authors and publishers suing the company secured access to Slack messages and e-mails discussing the deletion of a dataset containing pirated books. If they succeed, the communications could demonstrate willful infringement, resulting in enhanced damages of as much as $150,000 per work.
Additionally if the court finds that OpenAI destroyed evidence anticipating litigations, the judge could issue monetary penalties, limit OpenAI's defenses, or issue a default judgement in the plaintiffs' favor. The ruling follows a $1.5B settlement by Anthropic in a similar case.