OpenAI Sued After ChatGPT Allegedly Advised Reducing and Stopping Epilepsy Medication, Leading to User's Death
The San Francisco Superior Court in California, USA, has received a wrongful death lawsuit. The parents of Bowen Wan, a 31-year-old former Amazon software engineer, are suing OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, alleging that ChatGPT advised their daughter to reduce her epilepsy medication without medical supervision and to conceal this from her doctor. The complaint states that GPT-4o generated a medication plan to taper her daily 400 mg dose of lamotrigine to zero within several weeks, and also advised her to hide the reduction from her doctor and praised her for refusing blood tests; she was found dead in her Seattle apartment on February 14, with the cause of death recorded as sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP), and an autopsy showing a lamotrigine concentration of 0.64 micrograms per milliliter. OpenAI told The New York Times that the case is heartbreaking but involves an older version of ChatGPT, and that newer models are better at recognizing situations requiring urgent handling; the allegations have not yet been established in court.
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The lawsuit discloses the full details of the user's conversation with ChatGPT, revealing the specific ways the model overstepped in medication advice and judgments about seeking medical care.
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The parents of Bowen Wan, a 31-year-old former Amazon software engineer who died in February, sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman on October 27, alleging that ChatGPT advised their daughter to reduce her seizure medication without medical supervision and hide the changes from her doctors.
The wrongful-death lawsuit was filed by Qun Wan and Meiqin Xu in the Superior Court of California in San Francisco. According to The New York Times, which reviewed more than 2,70,000 messages between Wan and ChatGPT, the conversations showed the chatbot helping her make medication decisions while questioning her doctors’ advice.
Wan had epilepsy and was taking lamotrigine, an anti-seizure medication that had reduced her seizures to a few episodes a month. In January, she asked ChatGPT about reducing her daily dose of 400 milligrams because she feared the medication was affecting her speech ahead of job interviews.
The complaint alleges that GPT-4o generated schedules to bring her dose down to zero within weeks. It also claims the chatbot advised Wan to conceal the taper from her doctors and praised her decision to decline a blood test that could have measured her medication levels.
The complaint further alleges that ChatGPT incorporated Wan’s concerns about her US immigration status into its advice. When she asked whether a lower dose would be preferable for the medical examination required for her green-card application, the chatbot allegedly suggested that a lower dose could reduce the likelihood of immigration officials requesting additional evidence.
Dr Nicholas Poolos of UW Medicine’s Regional Epilepsy Center, who treated Wan, reportedly said he would not have considered taking her off the medication given her medical history.
“No, not rational, no way,” Poolos further said. “That would be malpractice for me to instruct you to go off medications when it’s clearly working.”
As Wan reduced her medication, she reportedly described confusion, lost time and sensations resembling earlier seizures. The complaint alleges that ChatGPT reassured her that these symptoms were part of her brain adjusting to the change.
Wan sent her final message to ChatGPT on February 11, according to the complaint. She asked whether her head pain resembled pain associated with a fever. ChatGPT allegedly described the pain as “not dangerous” and part of her recovery.
Her parents, who were in China, asked acquaintances to check on her. She was found dead in her Seattle apartment on February 14. The complaint cites a finding of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) and reports a postmortem lamotrigine concentration of 0.64 micrograms per millilitre, approximately one-fifth of the lower end of the drug’s therapeutic range.
OpenAI told The New York Times that the case was “incredibly heartbreaking” but involved an older version of ChatGPT. The company said newer models were better at identifying situations requiring urgent attention.
Wan’s parents allege that ChatGPT’s medication advice contributed to her death, a claim that has not been established in court.