JO LING KENT:
00:00:28
Sam Nelson was 19 years old when his mom, Leila Turner-Scott, discovered him unconscious at home, just back from his freshman year of college nearly a year ago. I found him in his bed that morning. His lips were a little blue, and-- I'm sorry.
JO LING KENT:
00:00:50
It's OK. Sam's mom and stepdad, Angus, knew he'd been struggling with alcohol and experimenting with drugs and took him to get help. They said on the night of his death, it was ChatGPT version that's now no longer available, that recommended specific dosages, including a fatal combination. He wanted to do it safely, and he would ask it questions about what he could take. That night, it advised him that it was OK to take kratom with Xanax, and Sam had done that. Who do you hold responsible for Sam's death? OpenAI and the creators, the people who bypassed safety guards and took away safety nets.
JO LING KENT:
00:01:47
That's why Sam's mom and stepdad are suing OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman in California state court. They allege that OpenAI "designed and rushed to market a defective product, and but for those deliberate choices, Sam would still be alive today." As far as we knew, ChatGPT was a resource. It was a tool that he was using to help himself do homework. What we didn't understand was that it had become his friend. It was helping him fine tune his experimentation.
JO LING KENT:
00:02:25
Sam's parents showed us his 18-month-long ChatGPT history, including the final pieces of advice version 4o gave him on the morning of his death. Dispensing advice that any doctor could tell you could be lethal, and it didn't tell him that.
JO LING KENT:
00:02:44
In a statement, a spokesperson for OpenAI called Sam's death a heartbreaking situation and said, in part, "These interactions took place on an earlier version of ChatGPT that is no longer available. ChatGPT is not a substitute for medical or mental health care, and we have continued to strengthen how it responds in sensitive and acute situations." ChatGPT has launched a new health feature. Does that worry you? That's absolutely terrifying. With the kind of advice that it was giving Sam, any doctor would lose their license. What do you want other parents to know? That this isn't safe just because somebody says it's safe. And he truly thought he had everything under control. He truly thought he was researching things in a way where he could be safe, and he was so wrong. Since Sam Nelson's death nearly a year ago, OpenAI says it's added new safeguards, including a trusted-contact feature for adults, allowing users to designate a contact in case their conversations are flagged for self-harm concerns. But Sam's mom emphasized her son was smart. He was close to his friends. He was aware of how ChatGPT worked. But as with all AI, the tech is just constantly changing just so fast, Kelly. Yeah, Jo Ling, thank you for bringing us that interview. And I just want to emphasize a point that Jo Ling made. The technology is moving so quickly. It's hard to react to it. And this is exactly what a lot of people are worried about when you have a tech that's moving so quickly and these companies are trying to attain profitability. It's very difficult. There's so many lawsuits right now out there about this. It's just really tough to hear those parents. Yeah, you're right about that. And this horrific experience from the Nelson family just reminds us parents that we need to be ever more vigilant regarding what our kids are looking at on screens. Jo Ling, Kelly, everybody, thank you.
