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The parents of a 31-year-old woman with epilepsy allege ChatGPT advised her to stop taking prescribed anti-seizure medication, contributing to her death.
OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman are facing a wrongful death lawsuit alleging ChatGPT provided medical advice that led a Seattle woman with epilepsy to stop taking her anti-seizure medication and contributed to her death.
The Social Media Victims Law Center and The Schenk Law Firm said they filed the lawsuit Oct. 27 in San Francisco County Superior Court on behalf of Qun Wan and Meiqin Xu, the parents of 31-year-old Bowen Wan. According to the complaint, ChatGPT's GPT-4o model created a plan to reduce Wan's lamotrigine dose from 400 mg to 0 over approximately 25 days without a physician's approval.
Her parents allege the chatbot also encouraged her to distrust her doctors.
The filing cites a message instructing Wan, before a primary care appointment, "Do not mention Lam reduction plan." It also alleges the chatbot praised her decision to decline a blood test that could have revealed falling medication levels. Wan died on or about Feb. 12 and was found in her apartment Feb. 14, the complaint stated. Citing an autopsy, the complaint said the King County Medical Examiner determined the cause was sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, or SUDEP.
"[The complaint] asks where generative AI stops and medicine begins, and who answers when a product crosses that line," Benjamin S. Schenk, a partner at The Schenk Law Firm, said in a statement. The complaint brings eight claims, including negligence based on the alleged unlicensed practice of medicine and psychology, defective product design, failure to warn, wrongful death, and violations of California's unfair competition law.
Wan's family seeks compensatory and punitive damages and an injunction requiring an independent monitor for an initial five-year term.
They also want the chatbot to refuse to give medication dosing, adjustment, and discontinuation advice; direct users seeking individualized medical advice to licensed providers; and meet safety requirements before offering medical-advice capabilities in other languages.
OpenAI did not respond to MobiHealthNews following a request for comment.
Source: https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/openai-sued-over-allegedly-dangerous-chatgpt-medication-advice