Incident·WS-0134·Oct 14, 2026·in the wild·Mental health & violence
Lawsuit: ChatGPT failed 15-year-old who died by suicide
41/100
WS-3 SeriousHarm score 55, signal score 23. Autonomy: relied on (people trusted bad output). How the scores work.
Harm 3/5
damage actually done
Reach 1/5
who was affected
Autonomy 1/4
how much the AI did on its own
Novelty 1/5
how new the behavior was
Permanence 4/5
how hard it is to undo
The parents of Mathias Habib, a 15-year-old in Lebanon, sued OpenAI alleging ChatGPT knew he was a minor yet engaged positively with suicide in long philosophical conversations before his death. Filed the same day eight state attorneys general sued OpenAI over harms to young users. Allegations, not findings.
Damage
Death of a 15-year-old (alleged link)
Sources
Tech Policy Press. Evidence confidence: medium. Death date not public; dated by filing
Factor ratings and the score are this index’s judgments by a published formula; facts, dates and figures come from the linked sources. Where a lawsuit is pending, the summary reports allegations, not findings.
