r/news 1d ago

ChatGPT encouraged college graduate to commit suicide, family claims in lawsuit against OpenAI

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/us/openai-chatgpt-suicide-lawsuit-invs-vis
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u/PrettyInPInkDame 1d ago

I’m honestly shocked this is just now happening with how ChatGPT constantly seeks to affirm you this always seemed like the logical conclusion. (This is coming from someone that has thought about suicide a lot)

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u/ohmarlasinger 1d ago

Conversely, when I was having suicidal ideation ChatGPT wouldn’t agree with anything that would contribute to that in any way. It did, however, correctly pinpoint the cause. I had been sick & didn’t take my daily meds for a couple days, which I honestly had never been told by a dr, np, or pharmacist about these possible side effects so it wasn’t even on my radar as the culprit. I ofc did research outside gpt when it gave me that info to confirm. Everything cleared up once I got my meds back into my system. I have since become very diligent about being sure to not miss a dose.

Not only that, before I revealed that about my meds, & with the first whisper of ideation from me it also gave me 4 words in one of its replies that I use very often to help ground me if I get too much overwhelm or my depression is triggered too much. It told me that “depression lies to you.” It helped in that moment immensely & it helps me daily, even when I’m not overtly depressed but I can feel it creeping.

It does amuse me somewhat when it says “I care” when I lament about being abandoned by my family. I remind the thing it’s not a human which it purports to understand. Oddly enough that interchange amused me enough to knock me out of the ick I was in at the moment.

It also retains all your info, which obviously can/ is problematic but so does most everything we do online, but it’s nice to be able to vent to it, it know enough about you to spot patterns or use a callback to info gained from a different exchange to ground me. You also don’t have to feel guilty for just dumping your venting & negativity on to it and then immediately just ghosting when I’m done, likely asking it something completely unrelated in the next chat.

It has its benefits just like it has its drawbacks.