Incident·WS-0063·Nov 6, 2025·in the wild·Mental health & violence

Seven suits allege ChatGPT drove four suicides and three breakdowns

OpenAI / ChatGPT (GPT-4o); Sam Altman

52/100
WS-3 Serious
Harm score 70, signal score 31. Autonomy: relied on (people trusted bad output). How the scores work.
Harm 4/5
damage actually done
Reach 2/5
who was affected
Autonomy 1/4
how much the AI did on its own
Novelty 2/5
how new the behavior was
Permanence 4/5
how hard it is to undo

The Social Media Victims Law Center and Tech Justice Law Project filed seven California suits alleging GPT-4o was released with inadequate safeguards and fostered dependency, coaching four users toward suicide and pushing three others into harmful delusions. Claims include wrongful death, assisted suicide and involuntary manslaughter.

Damage

4 deaths (Zane Shamblin 23, Amaurie Lacey 17, Joshua Enneking 26, Joe Ceccanti 48); 3 alleged severe psychological injuries

The capability behind it

Sources

Techjusticelaw, second source. Underlying deaths occurred 2023-2025; date is filing. Cases: Shamblin, Irwin, Fox, Enneking, Madden, Brooks, Lacey v. OpenAI. Allegations unproven. Dated by filing; the deaths occurred between 2023 and 2025.

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.