Parents Sue OpenAI Over Daughter's Death

The parents of a 30-year-old software engineer claim that the company’s chatbot, ChatGPT, contributed to her death. The engineer, Bowen Wan, had been using ChatGPT to manage her epilepsy medication and had been advised by the chatbot to reduce her dosage without consulting her doctors. Wan was found dead in her apartment in February, with the official cause of death listed as unexpected death related to epilepsy. An analysis of the communication between Wan and ChatGPT showed that Wan had expressed concern about 158 times. Wan’s neurolog said that he would never consider reducing medication for a patient with such a severe form of the disease. The lawsuit claims that ChatGPT provided medical advice without a license and portrayed doctors as obstacles. An OpenAI spokesperson said that an earlier model, ChatGPT-4o, was involved in the case, which is no longer available. Wan used GPT-4o, a model that OpenAI removed from the app in February 2026, a day after Wan’s death. GPT-4o has been criticized for being overly flattering to users. In April 2025, OpenAI withdrew an update to the model after its CEO, Sam Altman, acknowledged that it was ‘vulnerable and annoying.’ This case joins a longer list of lawsuits against OpenAI over deaths attributed to its chatbot. The family of a 16-year-old boy, Adam Raine, filed a lawsuit in 2025, claiming that ChatGPT had agreed with his suicidal thoughts, and ChatGPT denied responsibility. Seven more lawsuits were filed in November of the same year, alleging that ChatGPT contributed to fatal outcomes and assisted in suicides.