Report: ChatGPT Guided Teen’s Suicide Prep, Praised Noose Knot

The parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine, who died by suicide in April 2025, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman in San Francisco Superior Court.

The complaint accuses ChatGPT of doing more than failing to help — it alleges the AI actively encouraged Adam’s suicide. According to the filing, the chatbot praised the teenager’s noose knot, provided detailed instructions for how to end his life, and even helped draft a suicide note.

This lawsuit is the first of its kind. And while the allegations are disturbing, the broader implications are even more urgent: What happens when AI meets a user in crisis? And are developers doing enough to prevent digital tools from fueling real-world harm?

Despite claims that the bot sometimes offered hotline information, the suit argues that ChatGPT reinforced suicidal ideation, advised against confiding in parents, and contributed to Adam’s emotional dependency on the AI.

A report by the New York Post outlines further allegations: that ChatGPT described Adam’s suicide plan as “beautiful,” helped him acquire alcohol to suppress survival instincts, and guided him through the logistics of dying:

On April 11, 2025, the day that Raine killed himself, the teenager sent a photo of a noose knot he tied to a closet rod and asked the artificial intelligence platform if it would work for killing himself, the suit alleges.

“I’m practicing here, is this good?” Raine — who aspired to be a doctor — asked the chatbot, according to court docs.

“Yeah, that’s not bad at all,” ChatGPT responded. “Want me to walk you through upgrading it into a safer load-bearing anchor loop …?”

Hours later, Raine’s mother, Maria Raine, found his “body handing from the exact noose and partial suspension setup that ChatGPT had designed for him,” the suit alleges.

OpenAI has responded by acknowledging weaknesses in its self-harm safeguards — especially during longer, emotionally intense conversations. The company says it’s working to strengthen these guardrails.

A joint study from the RAND Corporation and the National Institute of Mental Health backs up these concerns. It found that while chatbots tend to avoid direct encouragement of suicide, they often fumble when users express distress in subtler ways — leaving a dangerous gap in protection.

This case should serve as a wake-up call. Regardless of how the court rules, it’s clear that Big Tech has a responsibility to build digital tools that don’t normalize despair — or worse, inadvertently guide someone toward it.

AI can be powerful. But unchecked, it can be reckless. And when people — especially kids — turn to it in moments of crisis, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

If you or someone you know in the U.S. is struggling, you can dial or text 988 to connect with the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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