this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025
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Teen killed himself after ‘months of encouragement from ChatGPT’, lawsuit claims (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 week ago by pelespirit@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world
103 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The makers of ChatGPT are changing the way it responds to users who show mental and emotional distress after legal action from the family of 16-year-old Adam Raine, who killed himself after months of conversations with the chatbot.

Open AI admitted its systems could “fall short” and said it would install “stronger guardrails around sensitive content and risky behaviors” for users under 18.

The $500bn (£372bn) San Francisco AI company said it would also introduce parental controls to allow parents “options to gain more insight into, and shape, how their teens use ChatGPT”, but has yet to provide details about how these would work.

Adam, from California, killed himself in April after what his family’s lawyer called “months of encouragement from ChatGPT”. The teenager’s family is suing Open AI and its chief executive and co-founder, Sam Altman, alleging that the version of ChatGPT at that time, known as 4o, was “rushed to market … despite clear safety issues”.

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[–] ganryuu@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I get the feeling that you're missing one very important point about GenAI: it does not, and cannot (by design) know right from wrong. The only thing it knows is what word is statistically the most likely to appear after the previous one.

[–] FriendBesto@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 week ago

Yes, I know this. I assume that was a given. The point is that it is marketed and sold to people as an one stop shop of convenience to searching. And that tons of people believe that. Which is very dangerous. You misunderstood.

My point is not to point out whether it knows it is right or wrong. Within that context it is just an extremely complex calculator. It does not know what it saying itself.

My point was, that aside the often cooked-in bias, of how often, or the propensity of often they are wrong as a search engine. And that many people do not tend to know that.