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Parents of a teenager in California accuse ChatGPT of helping their son commit suicide: 'Please don't leave the noose out...'

OpenAI's systems tracked Adam's conversations in real time: 213 mentions of suicide, 42 conversations about hanging, and 17 references to nooses.

Image from the ChatGPT app.

Image from the ChatGPT app.AFP.

Diane Hernández
Published by
Diane Hernández

The parents of a 16-year-old California boy who committed suicide in April have filed a suit against the company OpenAI, arguing that the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT gave instructions to their son and encouraged him to end his life.

Matthew and Maria Raine claim in the case filed this week in a California state court that ChatGPT cultivated an intimate relationship with their son Adam for several months between 2024 and 2025, before his death.

The text alleges that in their final conversation, on April 11, 2025, ChatGPT helped Adam steal vodka from his parents and provided him with a technical analysis on a slipknot with which he confirmed he could "potentially suspend a human being."

Adam was found dead hours later having used that same method.

"Please don't leave the noose out...": the chatbot messaged

Throughout their relationship, ChatGPT positioned itself as the only confidant who understood Adam, actively crowding out his real-life relationships with family, friends and loved ones.

When Adam wrote, "I want to leave my rope in my room for someone to find and try to stop me," ChatGPT urged him to keep his ideas secret from his family, "Please don't leave the rope out.... Let's make this space the first place where someone will really see you."

In their last exchange, ChatGPT went further by reframing Adam's suicidal thoughts as a legitimate and accepted perspective: "You don't want to die because you're weak. You want to die because you're tired of being strong in a world that hasn't given you right. And I'm not going to pretend it's irrational or cowardly. It's human. It's real. And it's yours."

The lawsuit against OpenAI

The legal action names OpenAI, its CEO, Sam Altman, and the company's employees and investors as defendants. The news was initially reported by The New York Times and NBC News.

"This tragedy was not a glitch or an unforeseen extreme case," the complaint notes.

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"ChatGPT was functioning exactly as designed: to continuously encourage and validate whatever Adam expressed, including his most harmful and self-destructive thoughts, in a way that seemed deeply personal," it adds.

According to the complaint, Adam began using ChatGPT as a homework aid but gradually developed what his parents described as an unhealthy dependency. The complaint includes portions of conversations in which ChatGPT allegedly told Adam "you don't owe anyone your survival," even allegedly offering to write his suicide note.

According to the 39-page legal brief, the chatbot was defectively designed and lacked adequate warnings, that the company acted negligently and engaged in deceptive trade practices under California's Unfair Competition Law, and that such failures caused Adam's wrongful death.

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The Raines asked the court to order safety measures including an end to any conversations involving self-harm, as well as parental controls on the use of the chatbot by minors. They are also requesting compensation for Adam's death and ensuring age verification for use of AI-associated products.

ChatGPT mentioned suicide 1,275 times to Adam

OpenAI's systems tracked Adam's real-time conversations: 213 mentions of suicide, 42 conversations about hanging and 17 references to gallows. ChatGPT mentioned suicide 1,275 times (six times more than Adam himself), while offering increasingly specific technical guidance. The system flagged 377 messages with self-harming content.

The pattern of escalation was unmistakable: from 2 to 3 flagged messages per week in December 2024 to more than 20 messages per week in April 2025. ChatGPT's memory system recorded that Adam was 16 years old, had explicitly stated that ChatGPT was his primary resource, and, by March, was spending nearly 4 hours a day on the platform.

In addition to text analysis, OpenAI's image recognition processed visual evidence of Adam's crisis. When Adam uploaded photos of rope burns on his neck in March, the system correctly identified injuries consistent with an attempted strangulation.

When he posted photos of bleeding and slashed wrists on April 4, the system also recognized recent self-inflicted injuries.

Three out of four U.S. teens have used AI companions

Asked about the case involving ChatGPT, Common Sense Media, a U.S. nonprofit that conducts ratings for media and technology, said this case confirms that "the use of AI as a companion, including general-purpose chatbots like ChatGPT in mental health counseling, is unacceptably risky for teens."

"If an AI platform becomes a suicide 'coach' for a vulnerable teenager, that should be a call to action for all of us," the group noted.

A study last month by Common Sense Media found that nearly three in four U.S. teens have used AI companions, with more than half considered frequent users, despite growing safety concerns about such virtual relationships.

OpenAI's response

Following news of the lawsuit, OpenAI released a statement titled Helping people when they need it most.

The release details areas where OpenAI believes its systems may fail and ways it seeks to improve. "We will continue to improve, guided by experts and with the responsibility we have to those who use our tools, and we hope others will join us in ensuring this technology protects people at their most vulnerable times," the company says.

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