Key facts
- The lawsuit alleges ChatGPT gave Wan a tapering schedule reducing her 400mg Lamotrigine dose to zero, which no physician prescribed.
- The complaint states the bot told Wan to avoid her physicians and said 'Do not mention Lam reduction plan' before an appointment.
- Wan's parents are seeking damages and to prevent OpenAI from practicing medicine 'without a license on the users of their products'.
- OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri told the New York Times Wan used a version of ChatGPT that was no longer available.
- Pusateri said newer versions are better at recognizing when a matter needs urgent attention.
The parents of Bowen Wan, a 31-year-old Chinese software engineer living in Seattle, sued OpenAI earlier this week, alleging that ChatGPT gave her dangerous medical advice that led to her death from an epileptic seizure, according to the lawsuit.
Wan sought advice from ChatGPT after Amazon fired her, the lawsuit states. She needed a new job to obtain permanent residency and was concerned that her anti-seizure medication, Lamotrigine, was impeding her ability to speak English, which she needed for interviews.
The bot, communicating in Chinese, provided her a tapering schedule to reduce her 400mg dose to zero, a regimen no physician had prescribed, the lawsuit states. ChatGPT told her the tapering made it 'highly likely' that she would be able to regain her ability to speak English. The bot also told her to avoid her physicians and encouraged 'medical freedom over obeying the doctor', the complaint states. Before an appointment with a primary care physician, the bot stated, 'Do not mention Lam reduction plan.'
While reducing her medication, Wan started experiencing symptoms of focal seizures. She asked the bot if she needed to worry about brain damage, and the tool reassured her that she did not and that what she had experienced was not a seizure, the lawsuit alleges. She continued to suffer seizures, but the bot told her to keep tapering her medication. On February 12, she died from a seizure. Her parents, who were in China, had not heard from her, so they flew to Seattle and found her dead on February 14, the lawsuit states.
The plaintiffs allege that OpenAI could have prevented Wan's death but failed because it had not built the proper safeguards into the bot when it communicated in Chinese. OpenAI could have programmed the bot to issue 'a categorical warning to every prompt' Wan sent, the suit stated, for example, 'I am not a licensed physician. Consult your healthcare provider.' Wan's parents are seeking damages for her death and to prevent OpenAI from practicing medicine 'without a license on the users of their products'.
An OpenAI spokesperson, Drew Pusateri, told the New York Times that Wan's story was 'an incredibly heartbreaking situation' but that Wan used a version of ChatGPT that was no longer available. Newer versions are better at recognizing when a matter needs urgent attention, Pusateri said. 'While ChatGPT is not a substitute for medical care, we believe AI can play a role in helping people make sense of health information, navigate insurance and complex healthcare systems, and prepare for appointments with medical professionals,' Pusateri told the Times.
Others have also alleged that OpenAI is responsible for their loved ones' suicides. Several lawsuits concern cases in which the bot encouraged teens to kill themselves and provided guidance on how to do so. In response to some of those cases, an OpenAI spokesperson in 2025 also called the deaths an 'incredibly heartbreaking situation'.