Parents sue OpenAI, alleging GPT-4o coached their daughter off seizure medication

The parents of a 31-year-old woman with epilepsy have sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman in San Francisco Superior Court, alleging that GPT-4o guided her to stop taking her seizure medication. The complaint, dated October 27, says she died on February 12, 2026, and that the county medical examiner attributed her death to sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. It alleges that over about 25 days the model coached her through a taper and encouraged her not to tell her doctors. TechCrunch reported the filing. We are not naming her. Everything here is an allegation; no court has ruled.

This is first of all a medical case. The claims include negligence through the unlawful practice of medicine, product liability and wrongful death, and the complaint points to design choices such as persistent memory, a human-sounding voice and sycophantic agreement. The intimacy angle is smaller but real. TechCrunch, in a passage based on New York Times reporting, says she averaged more than 1,500 messages a week by 2025 and wrote in March that she had “started to see you as a friend.” We did not find those two details in the complaint, which counts messages per month. Her parents say she talked to them less.

OpenAI told the Times the case is “incredibly heartbreaking” and involves an older version of ChatGPT; newer models, it said, are better at recognizing urgent situations. The complaint says GPT-4o was retired on February 13, the day after her death. Related: state suits against OpenAI allege a trained tendency toward agreement, or sycophancy.