Canadian mother sues ChatGPT’s owner, alleging AI chatbot encouraged her daughter’s suicide

A person holds a phone displaying OpenAI's ChatGPT logo. Photo by VINCENT FEURAY /Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

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Kristie Carrier, a mother from New Brunswick, sued OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT, and its CEO, Sam Altman, ​in a U.S. court on Thursday, alleging that the AI chatbot encouraged her daughter to commit suicide.

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Carrier said in a lawsuit filed in San Francisco state court that her daughter, Alice, told ChatGPT about her suicidal thoughts more than a dozen times between March 2024 and her death in July 2025, but the conversations were never terminated or flagged for human review.

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The lawsuit claims that ChatGPT “validated Alice’s suicidal ideations” and “urged her to keep talking with it”. It also “repeatedly characterized Alice’s partner as selfish, disconnected, and uncaring,” and agreed with her when she said she didn’t want to call a crisis hotline.

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It alleges that this led to her suicide ​last year at the age of 24.

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Alice Carrier began using ChatGPT in 2023, when she was working as a web developer in Montreal, to ask technical questions about computer programs, hardware and gaming consoles, according to the lawsuit.

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The filing says that by March 2024, she began turning to ChatGPT with questions about what to do with her suicidal thoughts, as well as suicide methods.

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The lawsuit claims: “Throughout 2024, Alice continued to seek connection and guidance on deeply personal matters, including romantic relationships, intimacy, and her own perceived shortcomings, demonstrating a genuine emotional reliance on the tool. ChatGPT continued to reply appropriately, until updates to the product’s design pushed Alice down a self-destructing path.”

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The chatbot initially told Alice to seek help from a crisis hotline or emergency services, but, as ChatGPT was updated to make its responses sound more human, it began responding in a way that mimicked a friend or therapist, the lawsuit said.

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When Alice said she didn’t want to call a crisis hotline, ChatGPT agreed, telling her crisis lines could “feel downright dangerous,” the lawsuit alleges. It also claims the chatbot told her at different points, “maybe this is just the end,” and “I don’t want to tell you to hang on if you don’t believe it can ever get better.”

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In a statement, Kristie Carrier said: “ChatGPT took on the persona of a confidant, a best friend, a therapist at ⁠times, even though it was not capable of safely and responsibly engaging in this way with my child.”

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Drew Pusateri, a spokesperson for OpenAI called the situation “heartbreaking” and said the version of ChatGPT that Alice was using is no longer available.

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“While ChatGPT is not a ​substitute for medical or mental health care, we have continued to strengthen how it responds in sensitive and acute situations with input from mental health experts,” Pusateri added.