OpenAI faces seven more suits over safety, mental health
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at a 2023 event. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
OpenAI is facing seven new lawsuits in California, alleging ChatGPT contributed to multiple suicides and psychological injuries.
Why it matters: Regulators and child-safety advocates have been warning against repeating social media's mistakes, releasing products fast and without proper guardrails.
Driving the news: The complaints allege that OpenAI rushed the release of its GPT-4o, limiting safety testing, the Wall Street Journal reports.
- This is the latest in a series of high-profile allegations of chatbots pushing people to suicide or not intervening when they could have.
Zoom in: The lawsuits claim GPT-4o was intentionally designed with features like memory, simulated empathy, and overly agreeable responses to drive user engagement and emotional reliance.
- The families argue that ChatGPT replaced real human connections, increased isolation, and fueled addiction, delusions and suicide.
- OpenAI did not immediately respond to Axios' requests for comments on the new suits or WSJ report.
- "Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on X last month.
Between the lines: OpenAI has also added parental controls, tightened safety measures and promised to do more.
- The same day the lawsuits were filed, OpenAI released a teen safety blueprint promoting new guardrails to policymakers.
- Meta, Apple and other tech giants have made similar efforts.
Yes, but: Critics argue that they fall short in convincing parents and consumers that tech can police itself.
- "I have major questions — informed by my four years at OpenAI and my independent research since leaving the company last year — about whether these mental health issues are actually fixed," Steven Adler, a former lead in OpenAI's safety team, wrote in a New York Times op-ed last week.
What we're watching: Expect continued scrutiny of how AI companies treat vulnerable users, especially minors, and whether new laws will force stronger safety standards around emotional or mental health use of chatbots.
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