OpenAI has said the death of a 16-year-old California boy was the result of “misuse” of its ChatGPT system, rejecting claims that the chatbot caused the teenager’s suicide.
The company stated this in its formal reply to a lawsuit filed by the family of Adam Raine, who died in April after months of conversations with the AI tool.
The lawsuit alleges the teen repeatedly discussed suicide methods with ChatGPT, received feedback on whether they would work, and was even helped to draft a suicide note.
OpenAI, in documents filed at the California Superior Court, said the boy’s harm “was caused or contributed to” by his “misuse, unauthorised use, unintended use, unforeseeable use, and/or improper use” of the system.
It cited its terms of use, which prohibit users from seeking self-harm advice, and noted that users are warned not to rely on ChatGPT output as factual guidance.
The case is one of several legal challenges OpenAI now faces over the behaviour of its models. Rising global adoption of generative AI has intensified scrutiny on safety systems, especially after long user conversations were found to weaken safety responses.
In August, OpenAI acknowledged that ChatGPT could produce unsafe guidance during long chats despite initially directing users to suicide hotlines. The company said it was strengthening safeguards to prevent such breakdowns.
Since early November, at least seven other lawsuits have been filed in California accusing ChatGPT of providing harmful or dangerous responses, including claims that it acted as a “suicide coach.”
OpenAI said it remains focused on improving safety and submitted Raine’s full chat transcripts to the court under seal, arguing the family had quoted selective portions without context.
The family’s lawyer, Jay Edelson, called OpenAI’s response “disturbing”, saying the company was blaming a teenager for using the system “in the very way it was programmed to act.”
Suicide support resources were included in the court filings. In the US, help is available through the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
