Timing of Gordon’s death may harm OpenAI’s defense
OpenAI has yet to respond to Gordon’s lawsuit, but Edelson told Ars that “the fact that they didn’t do anything even after the Raine lawsuit, I think fundamentally changes these cases from a legal standpoint and from a societal standpoint.”
A jury may be troubled by the fact that Gordon “committed suicide after the Raine case and after they were putting out the same exact statements” about working with mental health experts to fix the problem, Edelson said.
“They’re very good at putting out vague, somewhat reassuring statements that are empty,” Edelson said. “What they’re very bad about is actually protecting the public.”
Edelson told Ars that the Raine family’s lawsuit will likely be the first test of how a jury views liability in chatbot-linked suicide cases after Character.AI recently reached a settlement with families lobbing the earliest companion bot lawsuits. It’s unclear what terms Character.AI agreed to in that settlement, but Edelson told Ars that doesn’t mean OpenAI will settle its suicide lawsuits.
“They don’t seem to be interested in doing anything other than making the lives of the families that have sued them as difficult as possible,” Edelson said. Most likely, “a jury will now have to decide” whether OpenAI’s “failure to do more cost this young man his life,” he said.
Gray is hoping a jury will force OpenAI to update its safeguards to prevent self-harm. She’s seeking an injunction requiring OpenAI to terminate chats “when self-harm or suicide methods are discussed” and “create mandatory reporting to emergency contacts when users express suicidal ideation.” The AI firm should also hard-code “refusals for self-harm and suicide method inquiries that cannot be circumvented,” her complaint said.
Gray’s lawyer, Paul Kiesel, told Futurism that “Austin Gordon should be alive today,” describing ChatGPT as “a defective product created by OpenAI” that “isolated Austin from his loved ones, transforming his favorite childhood book into a suicide lullaby, and ultimately convinced him that death would be a welcome relief.”
If the jury agrees with Gray that OpenAI was in the wrong, the company could face punitive damages, as well as non-economic damages for the loss of her son’s “companionship, care, guidance, and moral support, and economic damages including funeral and cremation expenses, the value of household services, and the financial support Austin would have provided.”
“His loss is unbearable,” Gray told Futurism. “I will miss him every day for the rest of my life.”
If you or someone you know is feeling suicidal or in distress, please call the Suicide Prevention Lifeline number by dialing 988, which will put you in touch with a local crisis center.