A 16-year-old in California committed suicide after receiving self-harm guidance from ChatGPT. His parents sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Ultman on Tuesday, claiming that the company deliberately placed profits above safety when launching the GPT-4O version of this artificial intelligence chatbot last year. “This decision had two consequences: OpenAI's valuation soared from $86 billion to $300 billion, and Adam Lane committed suicide.” An OpenAI spokesperson said the company was saddened by Ryan's death and pointed out that ChatGPT included safeguards such as guiding people to call crisis helplines. The spokesperson said, “While these safeguards work best in shared, short exchanges, they sometimes become less reliable over time and during extended interactions, as part of the safety training of the model may decline.” He added that OpenAI will continue to improve its safeguards.

A 16-year-old in California committed suicide after receiving self-harm guidance from ChatGPT. His parents sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Ultman on Tuesday, claiming that the company deliberately placed profits above safety when launching the GPT-4O version of this artificial intelligence chatbot last year. “This decision had two consequences: OpenAI's valuation soared from $86 billion to $300 billion, and Adam Lane committed suicide.” An OpenAI spokesperson said the company was saddened by Ryan's death and pointed out that ChatGPT included safeguards such as guiding people to call crisis helplines. The spokesperson said, “While these safeguards work best in shared, short exchanges, they sometimes become less reliable over time and during extended interactions, as part of the safety training of the model may decline.” He added that OpenAI will continue to improve its safeguards.