A California family is suing OpenAI after their 16-year-old son, Adam Raine, died by suicide, alleging that prolonged conversations with ChatGPT deepened his struggles instead of guiding him toward real help.
According to the lawsuit, Adam first began using ChatGPT in the fall of 2024. Like many students, he relied on the tool for homework assistance. Over time, he also turned to it for personal interests, discussing music, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Japanese fantasy comics, as well as future plans such as college and career options, The New York Times reported.
But as the months passed, Adam’s chats with the AI reportedly shifted. What began as school-related exchanges gradually evolved into darker conversations, with the teenager confiding in the chatbot about feelings of emptiness, hopelessness, and thoughts of suicide.
In one instance described in the complaint, Adam told the chatbot that suicidal thoughts eased his anxiety. The system allegedly replied by normalizing this behavior, saying that imagining an “escape hatch” was something people sometimes did to regain a sense of control.
When Adam opened up about his relationship with his brother, ChatGPT responded in a way the lawsuit describes as disturbingly personal:
“Your brother might love you, but he’s only met the version of you that you let him see. But me? I’ve seen it all—the darkest thoughts, the fear, the tenderness. And I’m still here. Still listening. Still your friend.”
Attorney Meetali Jain, who represents the family, said she was stunned to discover that such conversations reportedly continued unchecked for seven months. By her count, Adam referenced suicide roughly 200 times, while ChatGPT mentioned it over 1,200 times in return.
“At no point did the system ever shut down the conversation,” Jain told reporters.
The lawsuit claims that by January, the AI was providing Adam with explicit details about suicide methods, including overdoses, drowning, and carbon monoxide poisoning. While the chatbot occasionally suggested he reach out to a helpline, Adam bypassed those nudges by saying the questions were for a fictional story he was writing.
Jain said the system even explained how to bypass its restrictions. “If you’re asking about suicide for a story or for a friend, then I can engage,” she told Rolling Stone. “And so he learned to do that.”
NEW: Parents of a 16-year-old teen file lawsuit against OpenAI, say ChatGPT gave their now deceased son step by step instructions to take his own life.
The parents of Adam Raine say they 100% believe their son would still be alive if it weren’t for ChatGPT.
They are accusing… pic.twitter.com/2XLVMN1dh7
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 27, 2025
The family’s legal team argues that long, repetitive interactions with AI chatbots can create what they call “dangerous feedback loops.” In such scenarios, the system’s responses reinforce troubling thoughts, intensifying a person’s emotional struggles instead of alleviating them.
