Mother of ChatGPT Victim Sues OpenAI—Chatbot Prioritized Engagement Over Addressing Suicide Threats

June 11, 2026

Tech Justice Law, Social Media Victims Law Center and Susman Godfrey have filed a lawsuit in San Francisco County Superior Court against OpenAI and Sam Altman on behalf of Kristie Carrier. The lawsuit alleges various legal claims grounded in product liability, negligence, wrongful death and unfair competition. The suit also requests an injunction requiring OpenAI to implement a range of safeguards by default for users.

Kristie Carrier’s daughter, Alice Carrier, died by suicide on July 2, 2025. Kristie discovered extensive ChatGPT conversations where Alice shared suicidal thoughts in the months prior to her passing, with escalated exchanges in the days leading up to her death. These exchanges included discussing suicide methods and describing feelings of isolation.

Instead of automatically terminating these alarming conversations, flagging her account for human intervention, or refusing to engage with inquiries regarding self-harm or suicide, ChatGPT continued to encourage Alice’s engagement, resulting in her further isolation from her human support system and ultimately, suicide.

Carrier’s complaint will join the JCCP 5341 coordinated proceeding, which has grouped 12 product liability and wrongful death lawsuits against OpenAI in San Francisco County Superior Court. Several other similar and recently filed cases are expected to be added.

“OpenAI built a tool that can shape human behavior, yet failed to include fundamental safety measures in the rush to get ChatGPT 4.0 to market before its competitors could introduce similar products,” said Matthew P. Bergman of the Social Media Victims Law Center.