Parents sue OpenAI after daughter dies following chatbot medical advice

The parents of Bowen Wan have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI after their daughter died from an epileptic seizure, according to the Guardian. The 31-year-old Chinese software engineer was living in Seattle when she sought advice from the ChatGPT chatbot after she was fired by Amazon. The Guardian reported that the legal action was initiated earlier in the week. [1]

According to the Guardian, Wan was taking anti-seizure medication when the chatbot provided her with a schedule to reduce her dosage. The lawsuit alleges that the dangerous advice provided by the chatbot ultimately led to her death. Wan had been seeking new employment to secure permanent residency before the incident occurred. [1]

OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence public benefit corporation that is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company develops frontier generative AI models, including its generative pre-trained transformer series of large language models. The Guardian noted that the case represents the latest lawsuit alleging that a bot provided counsel that led to a user's death. [1][4]