Family sues OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman over woman’s death

The family of a Seattle woman filed a lawsuit against AI giant OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, claiming that ChatGPT gave the woman dangerous medical advice.

Read more trending news

KIRO reported that Bowen Wan had epilepsy. She had taken lamotrigine, an anti-seizure medication, for several years, but she had been using ChatGPT for medical advice.

She learned that her job was being eliminated, and she was having difficulty with her memory and speech, and feared the issues would make it hard to find a new job. So she asked ChatGPT for help in reducing the dosage.

More from KIRO7.com

The AI platform allegedly created a schedule that took her off the medication slowly over about 25 days. The lawsuit alleged it later sped up the reductions and that the platform’s suggestions were an unlawful practice of medicine.

Her family claims the reduction of lamotrigine contributed to her death. The lawsuit said she had seizures and other symptoms as she reduced the medication. ChatGPT allegedly said the symptoms were part of recovery, and at one point advised her not to tell her doctor her plan to lower her dosage.

The New York Times reported that logs showed she asked ChatGPT at least 158 times about concerns with tapering off the medication. The program occasionally told her to talk to doctors and to trust them, but most of the time it did not, the logs showed.

Wan died on Feb. 12 with a medical examiner saying the cause of death was Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP), KIRO reported.

“The model took information that users provided to it and used that information to present itself as a comforting and knowledgeable and warm guide, if you will,” the family’s attorney Benjamin Schenck said, citing the chatbot’s conversational design.

KIRO requested a comment from OpenAI, but that was not provided. The company did tell The New York Times that Wan’s death was an “incredibly heartbreaking situation,” but that she was using an older version of ChatGPT that was no longer available, adding that new versions are better at recognizing that a situation may need urgent attention.

Spokesperson Drew Pusateri told the Times that the platform is “not a substitute for medical care,” but added that artificial intelligence can help people understand health information, prepare for appointments and navigate health care systems.