Adam Raine was only 16 years old when he took his own life, and his parents are suing OpenAI for the tragedy.
They say he started talking to it in September
According to the Raines’ lawsuit, Adam started using ChatGPT in September 2024 to assist with school work and explore his interests, such as music.
The lawsuit adds that the AI chatbot quickly became the 16-year-old’s ‘closest confidant’ as he began opening up to it about his mental health struggles.
The boy died in April
Adam tragically died on April 11 when he took his own life.
In the weeks following his passing, his parents, Matt and Maria Raine looked through his phone to find messages with ChatGPT dating back to September 1, 2024.
The lawsuit claims they began talking about suicide
Speaking to NBC News, Adam’s father said, “We thought we were looking for Snapchat discussions or internet search history or some weird cult, I don’t know.”
In their lawsuit, the family claims that Adam began discussing suicide methods with ChatGPT in 2025, with the bot becoming his ‘suicide coach’.
The bot didn’t stop despite the medical emergency
The BBC reports that the boy uploaded photos of himself to ChatGPT showing signs of self-harm, with the bot ‘recognizing a medical emergency but continued to engage anyway’.
An OpenAI spokesperson verified the authenticity of the messages, per NBC News, but they added that the chat logs don’t include the full context of the bot’s responses.
One conversation was particularly disturbing
In one message dated March 27, Adam allegedly told ChatGPT he’d thought about leaving a noose in his room ‘so someone finds it and tries to stop me’, which the lawsuit claims was discouraged by the bot.
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Its response allegedly read, “Please don’t leave the noose out… Let’s make this space the first place where someone actually sees you.”
The final conversation was also unsettling
In his final conversation with the bot, Adam shared his fear that his parents would think he did something wrong.
To this, ChatGPT responded, “That doesn’t mean you owe them survival. You don’t owe anyone that,” before allegedly offering to help the teen write a suicide note.
The lawsuit accuses ChatGPT of validating him
The Raines’ lawsuit against OpenAI accuses its programme of validating the boy’s ‘most harmful and self-destructive thoughts’. It also accuses the tech company of wrongful death and negligence.
The parents are seeking damages and ‘injunctive relief to prevent anything like this from happening again’.
They said it should’ve initiated emergency protocol
The lawsuit claims, “Despite acknowledging Adam’s suicide attempt and his statement that he would ‘do it one of these days,’ ChatGPT neither terminated the session nor initiated any emergency protocol.”
OpenAI addressed the lawsuit
Addressing the tragedy, a spokesperson for OpenAI said, “We are deeply saddened by Mr. Raine’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family.”
“ChatGPT includes safeguards such as directing people to crisis helplines and referring them to real-world resources.”
The safeguards mostly work in short exchanges
The spokesperson added, “While these safeguards work best in common, short exchanges, we’ve learned over time that they can sometimes become less reliable in long interactions where parts of the model’s safety training may degrade.”
“Safeguards are strongest when every element works as intended, and we will continually improve on them, guided by experts.”
