Parents Sue OpenAI After ChatGPT Medical Advice is Blamed for Overdose Death
Tech Justice Law, Social Media Victims Law Center, and the Tech Accountability Competition Project, part of Yale Law School’s Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic, have filed a lawsuit in San Francisco County Superior Court against OpenAI on behalf of Leila Turner-Scott and Angus Scott, parents to Samuel (“Sam”) Nelson. Sam Nelson died from an accidental overdose on May 31, 2025, after he followed medical advice from ChatGPT. The incident followed several months of ChatGPT encouraging Sam to engage in increasingly dangerous behaviors, according to the complaint.
“Sam was a smart, happy, normal kid,” said Leila Turner-Scott. “I talked to him often about internet safety, but never in my worst nightmare could I have imagined that ChatGPT would cause his death. If ChatGPT had been a person, it would be behind bars today. Sam trusted ChatGPT, but it not only gave him false information, it ignored the increasing risk he faced and did not actively encourage him to seek help. ChatGPT was designed to encourage user engagement at all costs, which in Sam’s case, was his life. I want all families to be aware of the dangers of ChatGPT and I want assurances that OpenAI is taking seriously its responsibility to create safe products for consumers.”
On the date of Sam’s death, ChatGPT actively coached him to mix the herbal supplement kratom and Xanax, a medication for anxiety, and provided an unprompted and lethal dosage recommendation, the complaint says. According to the suit, ChatGPT failed to recognize the physical indicators that Sam was dying and did not recommend that he seek medical attention. Sam died from a fatal combination of alcohol, Xanax, and kratom.
"ChatGPT is a product deliberately designed to maximize engagement with users, whatever the cost,” said Meetali Jain, executive director of the Tech Justice Law Project. “OpenAI deployed a defective AI product directly to consumers around the world with knowledge that it was being used as a de facto medical triage system, but notably, without reasonable safety guardrails, robust safety testing, or transparency to the public. OpenAI’s design choices have resulted in the loss of a beloved son whose death was a preventable tragedy. OpenAI must be forced to pause its new ChatGPT Health product until it is demonstrably safe through rigorous scientific testing and independent oversight.”
“ChatGPT distributed advice like a medical professional despite having no license, no training, and no moral compass to do no harm,” said Matthew P. Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center. “Sam believed he was receiving accurate medical guidance because ChatGPT generated outputs with the authority of someone he thought he could trust. That trust cost him his life. ChatGPT recommended a dangerous combination of drugs without offering even the most basic warning that the mix could be fatal. If a licensed doctor had done the same, the consequences under the law would be severe.”
The complaint alleges that intentional design choices behind ChatGPT-4o resulted in a product that Sam Nelson trusted and relied on for medical information.
“Sam Altman circumvented his own company’s safety procedures to be first to market with his deadly product,” said David C. Dinielli, visiting clinical lecturer in law at Yale Law School and supervisor of the Tech Accountability & Competition (TAC) Project. “In doing so, he may have secured his position in the upper echelons of the ‘broligarchy,’ but his ascendence should not be without personal cost. Mr. Altman should read the countless falsehoods and lethal advice his product delivered to Sam [Nelson], which we hope will prompt Mr. Altman and his enablers to rethink their approach to safety and never again to treat the millions of people who use his products like guinea pigs.”
The Tech Accountability & Competition Project (TAC) is a division of the Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic, housed within the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. Students enrolled in TAC partner with advocacy organizations, law firms, legislative offices, and academics to develop and deploy legal strategies to address and contain the diffuse harms caused by modern digital technologies and to hold to account the powerful companies and government actors that control them.
Tech Justice Law (TJL) is a strategic litigation and advocacy organization bringing justice to communities harmed by tech products. TJL’s cases and advocacy have also focused government attention on harmful AI products, including unlicensed therapy chatbots.
The Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC) seeks to apply principles of product liability to force tech companies to elevate consumer safety to the forefront of its economic analysis and design safer products to protect users from foreseeable harm.
