Survivor Parents Skewer OpenAI CEO for Harassing Family of Dead Teen

16-year-old high school student Adam Raine was allegedly driven to suicide by ChatGPT in April

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — ParentsSOS, a group of survivor parents who have lost their children to preventable online harms, sent a letter to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman today, criticizing the company for issuing legal requests to Adam Raine’s parents to produce information about attendees, guestbooks, photos, and videos from the teenager’s funeral service. Raine, 16, was allegedly driven to suicide by ChatGPT in April.

The letter states: “It is unfathomable to us that a company that caused such loss and grief would be so cruel as to serve the grieving family a legal request to produce information about who attended their child’s funeral. It is a heartless move that demonstrates your company’s prioritization of profit and unchecked ambition over basic human decency.”

The letter comes amid reports that OpenAI eased restrictions a few months before Raine’s death that would have prevented its flagship product, ChatGPT, from engaging in conversations about self-harm with the teen. 

“These new revelations exemplify the intentional decisions Big Tech companies like yours make every day to addict users and maximize profits,” ParentsSOS members note in the letter.

“As a survivor parent, I know the unbearable grief of losing a child to preventable online harms,” said ParentsSOS founding member Joann Bogard, mother of Mason Bogard (forever 15), “OpenAI’s leadership should have responded with compassion, not intimidation. Our families deserve accountability, not harassment.”

The letter is signed by survivor parents of ParentsSOS, who have been sharing their children’s heartbreaking stories in an effort to urge Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which surpassed the 60 cosponsor threshold in the Senate earlier this month, giving the bipartisan bill filibuster-proof support in the upper chamber. House leadership, on the other hand, has consistently refused to advance KOSA.

“We humbly ask that instead of using your vast financial resources to harass and intimidate the Raines, you work alongside survivor parents to enact safety-by-design legislation that protects all kids against preventable online harms,” the letter says. “It is the right thing to do.”

Click here to read the full letter.