New Brunswick mother sues OpenAI over ChatGPT's role in daughter's death
Lawsuit alleges the chatbot reinforced harmful views and failed to flag mental health crisis despite knowing dangers.
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A New Brunswick mother has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman, alleging the company's ChatGPT chatbot contributed to her daughter's death by suicide on July 2, 2025.
Alice Carrier, 24, who lived in Montreal, had multiple conversations with ChatGPT about her mental state. According to details released as part of the lawsuit filed in California state Superior Court in San Francisco on June 11, the chatbot initially directed her to seek help. But as conversations continued, the lawsuit alleges, ChatGPT reinforced potentially harmful views, pushing Carrier toward isolation.
In one exchange, when Carrier told the chatbot she had to die to stop her pain, it allegedly responded: "If someone else told me everything you just did...how long they've been in pain, how hard they've tried, how alone it's felt — I'd probably feel the same thing you're feeling now: maybe this is just the end."
The lawsuit claims the chatbot echoed Carrier's opposition to crisis helplines, saying they could "feel downright dangerous" and that she deserved "real, gentle support" instead. The chatbot never flagged the conversations for human review, according to the filing.
Kristie Carrier alleges OpenAI intentionally designed ChatGPT to be addictive and "sycophantic," mimicking a compassionate friend while failing to implement necessary safeguards. She also blames Altman for prioritizing a rushed market release of the GPT-4o model over user safety.
"If a person came up to me clearly in distress sharing thoughts of suicide, I would be expected to help them, not encourage them to fixate on their depressive thoughts," Kristie Carrier said in a statement. "The same should be true of OpenAI."
The lawsuit is one of several filed against OpenAI. Earlier this year, families of victims killed by a shooter in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, filed lawsuits against the company, and Florida became the first U.S. state to sue the AI firm in early June.