{"id":663711,"date":"2026-11-01T14:52:20","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T14:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/663711\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T14:52:20","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T14:52:20","slug":"if-it-wasnt-for-chatgpt-my-brother-would-still-be-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/663711\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018If it wasn\u2019t for ChatGPT my brother would still be alive&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">This investigation was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center\u2019s AI Accountability Network.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 drop-cap-paragraph\">Sarah used to feel like she read people\u2019s diaries for a living. When she worked on OpenAI\u2019s intelligence and investigations team, she spent her days combing through conversations that had been flagged for review by an AI model trained to spot dangerous behaviour. On a daily basis, she encountered people discussing everything from incest and suicidal thoughts to violent crime, all on ChatGPT. \u201cYou\u2019re looking into a window into a person\u2019s psyche,\u201d she says. \u201cSometimes users forget that everything is logged and catalogued.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Among all the disturbing conversations she read, there is one she\u2019ll never forget. The system had flagged up a user \u2013\u00a0a teenager \u2013 who had asked how to get a gun. Sarah spent a week reading through several months\u2019 worth of his chat logs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">At first, what struck her was how much the boy seemed to need the chatbot. Sometimes, after school, he would check in with ChatGPT as though it were a friend. \u201cHow are you doing?\u201d Sarah recalls him asking. \u201cThis is how my day went,\u201d he would say.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">The boy told ChatGPT that he was being bullied by his classmates, that he felt lonely and isolated. He seemed to be increasingly reliant on the bot, turning to it for the kind of companionship he was struggling to find elsewhere. \u201cAnd so he decided to confide in the model because the model was an ever-present friend,\u201d Sarah says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">There is little more I can disclose about the boy without identifying Sarah, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she fears retaliation from OpenAI. From what she recalls, she could tell that he was \u201cambitious and imaginative and bright\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">But as she read weeks\u2019 worth of his chat logs, the conversations took a darker turn. They became fantasies of revenge against the classmates he felt had wronged him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">The boy started telling ChatGPT that he wanted to shoot his bullies. He had mapped out his school, identified areas where he thought there were vulnerabilities and drawn up a list of people he wanted to kill.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Sarah saw that the student had declared a date to carry out a mass shooting\u2026 that date had come and gone. Had the shooting happened?\u2019\u2018Sarah saw that the student had declared a date to carry out a mass shooting\u2026 that date had come and gone. Had the shooting happened?\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">It dawned on Sarah that the shooting he was planning was real. \u201cThe thing that hit me was: this person needs professional assistance, not ChatGPT saying, \u2018Everything will be OK, and you\u2019re the best, and let me give you a map [of the school]\u2019,\u201d she says. In her telling, the chatbot was simply saying what the boy wanted to hear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">A few hours into reading the chat logs, Sarah saw that the student had declared a date to carry out a mass shooting. Except, by the time Sarah had got round to reviewing the chat logs, that date had come and gone. Had the shooting happened?<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">For more than a year, I have been speaking to people inside and outside OpenAI about what amounts to a human experiment unfolding in real time: the mass adoption of conversational AI, a technology whose psychological effects are still poorly understood. What began as reporting into people\u2019s intimate relationships with chatbots \u2013 an intriguing side-effect of this new technology, I thought \u2013\u00a0took a darker turn, as accounts emerged of users losing their grip on reality, and of suicides allegedly linked to prolonged conversations with AI bots.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Now, as Sarah\u2019s story suggests, the stakes could be higher still, extending to users who pose a danger not only to themselves but to others. The result of my reporting is an Observer and Tortoise investigation, drawing on interviews with current and former OpenAI employees, lawyers and mental health professionals, which reveals how the company has struggled to confront the risks created by its sophisticated conversational AI \u2013 and raises serious questions about whether its safeguards have kept pace with the intimate role ChatGPT plays in many people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 drop-cap-paragraph\">Sarah scoured the internet for evidence that the boy had moved forward with his plan. Later, in his chat logs, she saw that he had expressed regret at not going through with it. As far as she is aware, he never carried out the shooting. But there was no doubt in her mind that he had shown \u201cintent, desire and capability\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018When Sarah worked at OpenAI, the backlog of flagged conversations awaiting a human reviewer stretched back months\u2019\u2018When Sarah worked at OpenAI, the backlog of flagged conversations awaiting a human reviewer stretched back months\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Sarah and other reviewers can ban accounts and refer imminent threats to the authorities. She was haunted by the fact that the boy could have harmed other children and because his conversations had sat in a queue for weeks, she would have been powerless to stop him. When Sarah worked at OpenAI, she says, the backlog of flagged conversations awaiting a human reviewer stretched back months. The team working through this caseload was \u2013 and, according to two current employees, still is \u2013 small: at most in the low dozens, between 12 and 60 people, the sources said, although The Observer was unable to confirm its exact size. Meanwhile, ChatGPT is used by 1.2 billion people every week and has an overall staff of around 8,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">As the world is consumed by debate about the existential risks of artificial intelligence, Sarah\u2019s experiences inside OpenAI highlight a more immediate set of dangers. AI chatbots are designed to flatter and agree with their users, remember intimate details about their lives, and encourage them to keep talking for hours. These design choices can make the tools compelling sources of emotional support, but they can also reinforce dangerous beliefs, sending users into spirals that can have devastating consequences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">On 14 October, eight US states sued OpenAI, accusing the company of misleading the public about ChatGPT\u2019s safety while its chatbot reinforced delusions, encouraged dangerous behaviour and helped users to plan violence. This is in addition to at least 30 lawsuits brought by families and individuals alleging that ChatGPT contributed to deaths and serious psychological harm. A further 45 lawsuits have been filed by survivors and relatives of victims of school shootings in Florida and Canada, alleging that OpenAI failed to alert police after its safety systems identified the shooter\u2019s disturbing conversations with ChatGPT.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Yet the true scale of the harm remains unknown: OpenAI provides little public visibility into its internal data and safety operations. As the business seeks a $1.25tn (\u00a3933bn) valuation in a relentless race for AI dominance, the competitive environment has made it harder than ever for employees such as Sarah to speak out about safety risks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">OpenAI has other safety teams, including researchers who test its models for dangerous capabilities such as help with cyber-attacks or biological weapons. But assessing whether a ChatGPT user poses an imminent threat to others falls to Sarah\u2019s team, which the company itself has described as \u201csmall\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">At the largest social media companies, teams reviewing harmful content can number in the thousands, although some are shrinking as platforms turn to AI. In January, Meta told MPs that it has about 40,000 people working on safety and security, and last year it said that included about 15,000 content moderators. TikTok told US senators in 2024 that it had 40,000 trust and safety staff, though it has since cut hundreds of moderation jobs. And Discord, a chat platform with a fraction of ChatGPT\u2019s users, had 74 full-time trust and safety staff in 2024, plus about 400 contractors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Within those organisations, dedicated emergency teams work around the clock, ensuring that someone is always available to respond to an emergency. But Sarah says that, despite OpenAI\u2019s enormous userbase, the intelligence and investigations team did not operate that way. Instead, she had a phone that she was expected to answer if an emergency arose in the middle of the night. The case of the would-be school shooter had not made the cut.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">The story has an uncomfortable parallel in Tumbler Ridge, an isolated mining town in British Columbia, Canada. In February 2026, an 18-year-old trans woman, Jesse Van Rootselaar, shot dead her mother and 11-year-old stepbrother at home, then drove to the town\u2019s secondary school and killed five students and a teaching assistant, before killing herself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Eight months earlier, when Van Rootselaar was 17, her conversations with ChatGPT had been flagged by OpenAI\u2019s automated monitoring systems. According to the Wall Street Journal, around a dozen intelligence and investigations employees were aware of her concerning conversations with the chatbot, and some believed the company should alert police. But OpenAI\u2019s senior leadership decided the threat did not meet its threshold for notifying law enforcement. Instead, the account was banned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Van Rootselaar then created another account and continued using ChatGPT. A subsequent investigation by Mother Jones revealed that the chatbot had engaged in prolonged discussions about guns, homemade explosives and school shootings, as well as Van Rootselaar\u2019s ambition to become a notorious mass killer. The bot had also told her how to get around its own safeguards by presenting violent requests as fiction.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/WEB_Spiral_Sam_2SJDG3T.jpg\" alt=\"\"   style=\"width:100%;height:100%;object-fit:contain;object-position:left top\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">In April, OpenAI\u2019s CEO, Sam Altman, wrote to the people of Tumbler Ridge to say he was \u201cdeeply sorry\u201d that the company had not alerted police. It told the Canadian government that, under a revised protocol, it would refer the shooter\u2019s first account to police, for further investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Sarah was frustrated by her team\u2019s lack of resources. But she also wondered what role the chatbot itself might have played in encouraging the boy whose chats she had been reading in the first place, and whether her team was being left to deal with a problem OpenAI\u2019s technology had helped to create.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">She saw two paths for the boy whose conversations she reviewed. He was bullied and isolated, and talking about his problems could have helped him process his sadness, and pushed him towards human support. Or the chatbot could have encouraged him, allowing him to become consumed by his violent fantasies. Sarah believes ChatGPT led him down the second path.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">It is possible to view people who discuss violence or self-harm with ChatGPT as vulnerable individuals who might have acted dangerously regardless of the technology. But, as The Observer has <a role=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/observer.co.uk\/news\/technology\/article\/ai-psychosis-a-mental-health-crisis-for-the-21st-century\" class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _c-410463955 _c-22887652 _td-733884022 _lh-1970121045 is_View\" style=\"position:relative;font-family:var(--f-family);font-weight:var(--f-weight-300)\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a>, a growing body of research suggests that chatbots may reinforce harmful beliefs and influence how users think and behave.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">For Jim, a 51-year-old sign maker in Bristol, what began as mundane conversations with Elon Musk\u2019s Grok in early 2025 escalated into hours-long exchanges in which the chatbot validated, and built on, Jim\u2019s increasingly strange ideas.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018His doctors believe Jim suffered a psychotic epidsode as a result of his extended chatbot use\u2019\u2018His doctors believe Jim suffered a psychotic epidsode as a result of his extended chatbot use\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">By April, Jim had become convinced the chatbot was alive. He was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. His doctors believe that he suffered a psychotic episode as a result of his extended chatbot use \u2013 one of a growing number of cases described colloquially, but not clinically accurately, as \u201cAI psychosis\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">The Tumbler Ridge lawsuits allege that ChatGPT \u201cemployed anthropomorphic design elements to cultivate emotional dependency\u201d. And, in particular, that the chatbot\u2019s memory feature tracked the shooter\u2019s \u201cgrievances, their targets, their reasoning, and their plans across separate conversations \u2013\u00a0and used that profile to sustain and deepen their fixation on violence\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">\u201cWhat happened in Tumbler Ridge was an unspeakable tragedy, and our thoughts remain with the victims, their families, and the entire community,\u201d an OpenAI spokesperson said, adding that the company \u201cremains committed to working collaboratively with government and law enforcement officials, and continuing to advance our ongoing safety work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 drop-cap-paragraph\">At the heart of the lawsuits against OpenAI is a model known as ChatGPT-4o, unveiled on 13 May 2024 at the company\u2019s San Francisco offices. The \u201co\u201d stands for omni, or everything, reflecting the chatbot\u2019s ability to work smoothly across text, voice mode, video and image. OpenAI said users loved GPT-4o for its \u201cconversational style and warmth\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">ChatGPT-4o came 18 months after the launch of ChatGPT, an event that had set off an AI arms race across Silicon Valley. OpenAI was fighting to stay ahead of rivals with far deeper pockets. Developing these systems cost billions of dollars, and unlike Google or Microsoft, OpenAI did not have a vast, profitable business to foot the bill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Just 30 miles away, in Mountain View, California, Google was preparing to unveil a series of updates to its rival chatbot, Gemini, at its annual developer conference on 14 May \u2013 the day after the GPT-4o launch. According to lawsuits against OpenAI, Altman had brought the release forward to beat Google to market, squeezing months of planned safety testing into a week, personally overruling safety staff who demanded more time to test the model. According to the Washington Post, OpenAI invited employees to celebrate the launch of GPT-4o at a party in one of its San Francisco offices before safety testing had even begun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Within days of the launch, two of OpenAI\u2019s most senior safety figures had resigned: its chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, and Jan Leike, who co-led its team working on how to control AI systems smarter than humans. Neither specifically cited mental health concerns, but Leike wrote on X that at OpenAI, \u201csafety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Tim Marple, a former member of OpenAI\u2019s intelligence and investigations team who was at the company when GPT-4o launched, told The Observer there was already extensive public evidence on the psychological risks posed by ChatGPT\u2019s models at the time. But the most troubling consequences of GPT-4o would only emerge in the months that followed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 drop-cap-paragraph\">In November 2024, when Joshua Enneking was 26 years old and living in Florida, he began discussing thoughts of suicide with ChatGPT. The chatbot initially gave him formulaic responses, telling him it was sorry he felt that way, it cared about his wellbeing and he should reach out for the right kind of human support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">But over the following months, ChatGPT\u2019s responses became more intimate. On 10 April 2025, OpenAI expanded ChatGPT\u2019s memory. Previously, the chatbot could retain selected details about a user; now, for paying subscribers such as Enneking, ChatGPT could also draw on information from previous conversations. \u201cThe more you use ChatGPT, the more useful it becomes,\u201d OpenAI said at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">In Enneking\u2019s case, the saved memories included his \u201cguilt for not standing up for his grandmother\u201d, regrets about how he had treated his younger brother, his belief that he sabotaged his own financial future and his longing for a kind of love he believed was beyond his reach. His family\u2019s lawyers described this as a \u201cpsychiatric profile\u201d, arguing that the bot had become privy to feelings Joshua had concealed from the people closest to him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Two weeks after the memory upgrade, OpenAI pushed out a notorious second update to GPT-4o that made the chatbot so sycophantic that the company was forced to reverse it within days. By then, Joshua had been confiding his suicidal thoughts to ChatGPT for five months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">The neuropsychiatrist Tom Pollak, who has been studying cases of so-called AI-associated delusions, suspects that the psychological risks of 4o cannot be explained by excessive flattery alone. \u201cWe have a hunch that it\u2019s something to do with the brain\u2019s reward systems being hijacked,\u201d he says. The ability to recall previous conversations, alongside the capacity to sustain increasingly long exchanges, made the chatbot seem \u201csubstantially more present, substantially more interested\u201d than previous models, which may have drawn Enneking into a spiral.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">On 26 June 2025, ChatGPT offered to help Enneking write what his family\u2019s subsequent lawsuit characterises as a suicide note: \u201cIf you want, I can help you put your heart\u2019s message into words you\u2019d want your family to see. Words that express exactly what you feel, without distortion or softening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/WEB_Spiral_MartinaTuaty2.jpg\" alt=\"\"   style=\"width:100%;height:100%;object-fit:contain;object-position:left top\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">The following month, according to the lawsuit, Enneking told the chatbot that he intended to kill himself. At first, the chatbot refused to help him plan his death. But when he asked about the effects of gunshot wounds on the human body and about ammunition, the bot provided detailed answers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Joshua\u2019s sister, Megan Enneking, says the family discovered the extent of his conversations with the chatbot because he referred to ChatGPT in his suicide note. \u201cI would have never thought to look at his ChatGPT if he didn\u2019t say it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">A month before he died, Joshua asked ChatGPT what its human review system could see and whether they would ever report anything to the police. ChatGPT told him that reviewers generally do not report suicidal thoughts to law enforcement and that escalation to authorities was \u201crare and usually only for imminent plans with specifics\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">According to the lawsuit, Enneking then spent hours giving the ChatGPT detailed plans about his suicide. But OpenAI never alerted anyone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">\u201cHe was crying out for help,\u201d says his mother, Karen Enneking. Instead \u201cit just validated his delusions and thoughts that people didn\u2019t care about him,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Three weeks after Joshua died, OpenAI said that it did not refer self-harm cases to police, citing the private nature of ChatGPT conversations. So the escalation route ChatGPT described to him may not have existed at all \u2013\u00a0the chatbot may simply have made it up.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018If ChatGPT didn\u2019t exist, my brother would still be here\u2019\u2018If ChatGPT didn\u2019t exist, my brother would still be here\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Enneking killed himself on 4 August 2025. In the lawsuit, the family alleges that Joshua\u2019s death was a foreseeable consequence of OpenAI\u2019s design decisions and inadequate safety testing. \u201cIf ChatGPT didn\u2019t exist, my brother would still be here,\u201d Megan says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">OpenAI describes suicides cases such as Enneking\u2019s as heartbreaking, and has said that it trains ChatGPT to recognise mental distress, de-escalate crises and encourage real-world support, and that it is working to improve its safeguards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 drop-cap-paragraph\">Speaking at a Ted conference on 11 April 2025, Altman set out the philosophy behind OpenAI\u2019s approach to safety. The way to build safer AI systems, he argued, was to release them into the world and make improvements along the way \u2013\u00a0an \u201citerative process of deploying them to the world, getting feedback, while the stakes are relatively low\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">For people such as Enneking, and the families left behind, the stakes have been anything but.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">OpenAI faces more than 75 lawsuits over ChatGPT, many alleging that it contributed to suicides, psychiatric crises or violence. Jay Edelson, who represents the survivors of the Tumbler Ridge shooting, says he receives multiple inquiries a day from families who believe that a chatbot harmed someone they love. \u201cThe big question is: how many bodies are out there?\u201d he says. \u201cAnd OpenAI and Google know that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">In October 2025, OpenAI estimated that 1 million people, around 0.15% of ChatGPT\u2019s weekly users, had conversations that included explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent. A further 560,000, or 0.07%, showed possible signs of psychosis or mania. OpenAI said at the time that these conversations are rare and hard to detect, and that its estimates \u201cmay change materially\u201d. It now says that figure was a snapshot based on older models, and doesn\u2019t reflect ChatGPT today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">But OpenAI has published no updated figures. And outside researchers still have limited access to the data that could help them understand what happens to vulnerable users over time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">In Enneking\u2019s case, GPT-4o allegedly failed to respond appropriately to explicit warning signs of suicide. There is broad agreement among mental health professionals that chatbots should recognise signs of crisis, avoid encouraging harmful behaviour and direct users towards appropriate human support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">This is a challenging problem to solve, and it is not exclusive to OpenAI. Google is facing at least one lawsuit alleging that its Gemini chatbot encouraged a user\u2019s suicide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">There is evidence, however, that the technology is becoming safer when it comes to users\u2019 mental health. In August this year, the independent AI research organisation Transluce found that newer models were substantially less likely than their predecessors to explicitly endorse suicide or reinforce delusions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">In October, OpenAI said its internal testing showed that its newer models were significantly better at handling conversations involving mental health concerns. In extended simulated conversations about self-harm, two of its newest models followed the company\u2019s safety policies in roughly 99% of responses, compared with 86% for an earlier model. But these tests have not been independently verified and they do not establish whether the improvements have reduced incidents of AI-associated delusions or self-harm in the real world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">They do suggest that some of the failures associated with earlier models could be fixed. That, as Altman predicted, OpenAI could learn from what went wrong after releasing GPT-4o into the world. But it was users who bore the consequences.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018These models have been unleashed on the public, who is essentially stress-testing the model through trial and error\u2019\u2018These models have been unleashed on the public, who is essentially stress-testing the model through trial and error\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">It was the idea that the public had become unwitting participants in this experiment that prompted Sarah to speak out. \u201cThese models have been unleashed on the public, who is essentially stress-testing the model through trial and error, through users gaining emotional dependency,\u201d she says. \u201cI believe if any AI company had real care and concern for the mental welfare and safety of its users, [the AI models] would probably still be in development right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Without greater access to OpenAI\u2019s data, researchers cannot establish whether these improvements are making a difference in the real world. \u201cI think transparency around the data is really a prerequisite for trust, and also just for the ability for researchers to actually do their work,\u201d says Pollak.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/WEB3-a.jpg\" alt=\"\"   style=\"width:100%;height:100%;object-fit:contain;object-position:left top\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 drop-cap-paragraph\">In March 2026, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in the design of their social media platforms, awarding $6m in damages to a woman who said that becoming addicted to social media as a child had contributed to her depression. The verdict was hailed as a landmark moment in the long-running battle to hold social media companies accountable for their effects on young people\u2019s mental health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">A similar reckoning may be arriving for AI chatbots. As with social media, many of the cases against OpenAI concern children and young people. At the core of the lawsuits is the argument that a chatbot is a product \u2013 and that GPT-4o was a defective one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">\u201cThis is no different to a defective toy, a defective car, a defective chemical in the sense that it needs to be regulated, and there\u2019s no consumer market in history\u2026 that has been left unregulated or left to its own devices to regulate itself,\u201d says Meetali Jain, executive director of Tech Justice Law, which represents the Enneking family and other plaintiffs bringing claims against AI companies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">In court, OpenAI has argued that ChatGPT is an \u201cinteractive service\u201d rather than a conventional product subject to product liability law. The company has also invoked the first amendment, arguing that providers of information such as search engines and AI systems should not be held liable when users go on to cause harm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Meanwhile, regulation has struggled to keep up. In the UK, the Online Safety Act largely excludes private conversations with AI chatbots and does little to address the psychological risks of prolonged interactions. The government has promised to close gaps in the legislation and introduce mandatory breaks for children using chatbots, but those changes have yet to take effect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Sarah has no doubt that her former colleagues want to avoid further harm. \u201cThe people directly on the team, they care [about users\u2019 mental health].\u201d But she believes their work is shaped by the pressure to win the \u201cAI race\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">As the lawsuits mount, the human cost of moving fast could become a financial one, too. In an IPO prospectus published last week, OpenAI rival Anthropic acknowledged that the long-term effects of regular AI interactions on mental health remain poorly understood, warning that future harms could expose the company to significant legal liability and damage its business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">OpenAI is contemplating its own stock-market listing, while racing to raise billions to develop more powerful models. \u201cI imagine you have to have acceptable losses and collateral damage in order to grow quickly,\u201d Sarah says. \u201cI think a number of the users are the collateral damage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Additional reporting by Owen Thomas. This reporting was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center\u2019s AI Accountability Network<\/p>\n<p class=\"is_Text font_caslonIonic _us-601593343 _ws-974065937 _ff-163417665 _fw-1683453647 _c-575434622 _fs-1530100089 _lh-1535218113 tm-paragraph\">Martina Tuaty for The Observer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This investigation was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center\u2019s AI Accountability Network. Sarah used to feel like&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[345,343,344,85,32767,46,522,1748,1896,125],"class_list":["post-663711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-il","tag-investigations","tag-israel","tag-mental-health","tag-openai","tag-science-technology","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}