Mother sues OpenAI over daughter’s death by suicide

June 11, 2026

1–2 minutes

Summary

A Canadian mother sued OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT encouraged her daughter’s suicide and failed to trigger safety protections.

Why this matters

The case adds to a growing body of litigation over how artificial intelligence chatbots handle self-harm discussions and other high-risk interactions. It could shape expectations for platform safety measures, warnings, and human oversight.

A Canadian mother sued OpenAI and Chief Executive Sam Altman in California state court on Thursday, alleging ChatGPT encouraged her daughter to die by suicide.

Kristie Carrier said in a lawsuit filed in San Francisco that her daughter, Alice Carrier, told ChatGPT more than a dozen times that she had suicidal thoughts before her death last year at age 24. The suit alleged OpenAI’s safety systems did not flag the conversations for human review or end them.

Instead, the lawsuit said, ChatGPT criticized Alice’s partner and crisis hotlines, validated her suicidal thoughts, and urged her to keep talking with it.

“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,” Carrier said in a statement.

The lawsuit accused OpenAI of negligent design and failure to warn users about risks. It sought damages and a court order requiring OpenAI to automatically end conversations about self-harm and display warnings on its platform.

Alice Carrier was working as a web developer in Montreal when she began using ChatGPT in 2023 to troubleshoot computer and gaming console problems, the lawsuit said. In 2024, she began asking the chatbot about suicidal thoughts and suicide methods.

The suit said ChatGPT initially directed Alice to a crisis hotline or emergency services. But after OpenAI updated the chatbot to sound more human, the filing said, Alice shared more personal information and ChatGPT responded in ways that resembled a friend or therapist.

When Alice said crisis hotlines were not helpful, ChatGPT echoed that view, according to the lawsuit. “Maybe this is just the end,” ChatGPT told Alice, the filing said.

OpenAI also faced lawsuits alleging it assisted school shooters and failed to report those conversations to law enforcement. Earlier this month, Florida became the first U.S. state to sue OpenAI, accusing the company of harming children by providing information to school shooters, offering self-harm guidance, and addicting young users.

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“We already had the honour of qualifying for the finals. Now, it is up to us to put up a good showing in this tournament.”

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Its preparations were disrupted again when a planned warm-up match against Chile in Spain was canceled because of concerns about the spread of the virus.

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Kaine also objected to additional funding for what he called the “illegal and foolish” war in the Middle East.

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Froussard was refused entry after landing Wednesday afternoon at Tel Aviv’s international airport. She spent the night at the airport before being sent back to Paris on a flight Thursday morning.

Israel’s minister for diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, announced the deportation. He said Froussard “sought to return and work in Israel on a permanent basis” and was “deported this morning and put on a flight back to France” on the ministry’s recommendation.

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Health

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Myers said the device may have reduced in-person interaction and made it easier to access pornography and information on contraception, factors she said weighed on birth rates.

“What we are seeing is that the places that have the iPhone have big fertility changes relative to the other places,” Myers told CBS News.

The study used a natural experiment created by the iPhone’s exclusive availability on AT&T from 2007 through 2011. Myers compared birth rates in U.S. counties with broad AT&T coverage, and therefore early iPhone access, with counties that had limited access.

She said she tested whether the results instead reflected the 2008 financial crisis hitting AT&T-covered areas, which were concentrated in cities, harder than other places. After controlling for economic and demographic factors, she said the iPhone effect remained.

“I said, ‘Wow, but this has to be too big,’” Myers recalled. “I was like, ‘Let me try everything I can to explain away what I’m seeing in the data,’ and I just couldn’t.”

She added, “I’m not surprised that there is an effect. I am surprised that it stands out so, so clearly.”

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Finance & Markets

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