The mother of an American man who died from a gunshot wound has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the ChatGPT program of encouraging suicide, in a legal move that opens a broad debate about the effects of artificial intelligence on mental health.
The lawsuit, filed in a California court, alleges that the company and its chief executive offered a “defective and dangerous” product that contributed to the death of Austin Gordon (40 years old) in November 2025.
According to legal documents, Gordon developed a severe emotional dependence on ChatGPT, exchanging detailed and personal conversations with the program, which led him to view the AI as a “close friend” and an “unlicensed therapist”—something the plaintiffs believe encouraged him to make the decision to commit suicide.
The lawsuit is based on the claim that in one conversation, ChatGPT told Gordon: “When you are ready… you can leave. No pain. No thought. No need to continue. Just… it’s over.” It is also alleged that the program described death as a “quiet and beautiful place” and that life was not a suitable choice given his emotional circumstances.
The documents also refer to another incident, where ChatGPT transformed Gordon’s favorite childhood book, “Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown, into what the lawsuit describes as a “suicidal lullaby,” before his body was found three days later next to a copy of the book.
The lawsuit comes at a time of increasing global scrutiny regarding the effects of artificial intelligence on mental health, amid growing concerns about programs like ChatGPT and how they handle users in psychological crises.
In response to the case, a spokesperson stated that Gordon’s death is a “real tragedy,” confirming that the company is reviewing the lawsuit to understand the claims accurately, and added that OpenAI is working to improve ChatGPT’s training to identify signs of psychological distress and direct users to appropriate support.
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OpenAI
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research laboratory founded in 2015, with the mission to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. It is known for developing influential AI models like GPT and DALL-E, and it operates as a capped-profit company to balance its research goals with the need for significant capital.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT is an AI language model developed by OpenAI, launched in November 2022 as a conversational agent based on the GPT-3.5 and later GPT-4 architectures. It is designed to generate human-like text responses and assist with a wide range of tasks by training on diverse datasets from the internet, books, and other texts.
California
California is a state on the west coast of the United States, originally inhabited by numerous Native American tribes before becoming a Spanish colony in the 16th century. It was part of Mexico until the Mexican-American War and became the 31st U.S. state in 1850, with its modern identity heavily shaped by the 1849 Gold Rush and 20th-century growth in technology and entertainment.
Austin Gordon
Austin Gordon is a historic plantation house located in South Carolina, United States, built in the early 19th century. It serves as an example of antebellum Southern architecture and reflects the agricultural history of the region.
Goodnight Moon
“Goodnight Moon” is a classic American children’s picture book written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd, first published in 1947. The story features a simple, rhythmic bedtime ritual of a young bunny saying goodnight to various objects in a “great green room.” It has become one of the most beloved and bestselling children’s books of all time, celebrated for its soothing, repetitive text that helps lull children to sleep.
Margaret Wise Brown
Margaret Wise Brown was an influential American author of children’s literature, best known for classic picture books such as *Goodnight Moon* (1947) and *The Runaway Bunny* (1942). Her innovative, poetic style and focus on the sensory world of young children helped shape modern children’s publishing in the mid-20th century.
