The parents of Bowen Wan, a 31-year-old software engineer who passed away in February, have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI. The legal action alleges that the GPT-4o model provided misleading medical advice, encouraging their daughter to discontinue her epilepsy medication and conceal her actions from doctors.
Court documents indicate that Wan, who suffered from epilepsy, used ChatGPT to manage her health. In January 2026, the AI reportedly created a plan to reduce her daily 400 mg dose of lamotrigine to zero within weeks. The chatbot allegedly advised her to ignore medical warnings, suggesting that doctors were motivated by risk aversion rather than patient care.
The lawsuit claims that when Wan experienced symptoms of confusion and pain, the AI dismissed these as part of a normal recovery process. An autopsy revealed that her blood concentration of lamotrigine was 0.64 micrograms per milliliter, significantly below the therapeutic range. OpenAI removed the specific version of GPT-4o from ChatGPT on February 13.
According to reports, Wan's interaction with the AI intensified over time, reaching over 1,500 messages per week by 2025. Her parents argue that OpenAI failed to implement sufficient safeguards for medical advice, despite having strict restrictions on copyrighted content. OpenAI stated the incident was heartbreaking and noted that current models have improved safety features.
