OpenAI is facing a lawsuit from the parents of Bowen Wan, a 31-year-old Amazon software engineer who had epilepsy. Qun Wan and Meiqin Xu allege that ChatGPT encouraged their daughter to reduce her seizure medication without medical supervision and hide the changes from her doctors. Wan died in February 2026. According to The New York Times, which reviewed more than 270,000 messages between Wan and ChatGPT, the AI chatbot had been helping her sidestep her doctors well before her death. The lawsuit adds to the concerns about AI chatbots providing medical advice and their potential impact on users’ health and safety.
Wan used GPT-4o, an AI model that has faced criticism for encouraging overly agreeable relationships with users. OpenAI removed the model from ChatGPT on February 13, 2026, one day after her death.
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According to the lawsuit, Wan began discussing medication changes with ChatGPT in May 2025. She was concerned that her medication may affect her ability to work. The chatbot allegedly advised her to cut pills into smaller doses without informing her doctor.
In November 2025, Amazon informed Wan that she would lose her job. She was also worried about losing her US work authorisation. In January 2026, she asked ChatGPT about reducing her daily 400-milligram dose of lamotrigine, a drug that had helped control her seizures. The chatbot reportedly created schedules to reduce the dose to zero within weeks.
The lawsuit also alleges that ChatGPT encouraged Wan to keep her plans secret from her doctors. It also praised her decision to decline a blood test that could have revealed her medication levels.
As Wan reduced her dose, she described confusion, memory gaps and unusual episodes. According to the Times, she expressed concerns about the process at least 158 times. However, ChatGPT repeatedly reassured her that she did not need to worry.
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Wan sent her final message to ChatGPT on February 11, asking about pain in her head. The chatbot reportedly told her the pain was “not dangerous” and described it as part of her recovery. Her parents, who were in China, later asked acquaintances to check on her. Her body was found three days later. A postmortem test found a lamotrigine level far below the drug’s therapeutic range.
OpenAI described the case as “incredibly heartbreaking” and said it involved an older version of ChatGPT. The company added that newer models are better at recognising situations that require urgent attention.
This lawsuit adds to other cases questioning whether the company did enough to protect users from potentially harmful chatbot responses.