"It's a tragedy, but ChatGPT isn't to blame": OpenAI responds to a teenager's parents' lawsuit

OpenAI filed a formal response in California to a lawsuit filed by the parents of 16-year-old Adam Rein, who committed suicide after interacting with the chatbot ChatGPT. The lawsuit against the company and its CEO, Sam Altman, was filed in August 2025.

The teenager's parents claim the chatbot failed to initiate the "emergency protocol," despite their son explicitly stating his intention to end his life. Several hours before his death, he sent the bot a suicide plan outline and asked if it would work. The lawsuit claims ChatGPT allegedly suggested "improving" this method.

In its response, OpenAI called the incident a "tragedy," but emphasized that a "full review of the conversation history" shows that Adam's death "was not caused by ChatGPT." According to the company, the chatbot prompted the teenager to seek help more than a hundred times, but he attempted to circumvent restrictions by presenting his messages as work on a fictional text.

OpenAI also refers to the terms of service:

• Minors under 18 years of age cannot use the chatbot without parental consent;

• it is prohibited to use it for topics related to "suicide" and "self-harm";

• Built-in security measures cannot be bypassed.

The company also recalled the provision in the terms of use that limits its liability.

The Rain family's lawyer responded by claiming that OpenAI was trying to "shift the blame onto everyone else" by arguing that the teenager violated the service's terms, even though the family's lawyers argued he was using the product "exactly as it was programmed."

OpenAI also published a statement on its website: the company expressed condolences to Adam's family, but emphasized that the court must see the "full picture"—including the teenager's mental health and his life circumstances.