Parents Sue OpenAI, Alleging GPT-4o Encouraged Their Daughter to Stop Taking Seizure Medication
The parents of Bowen Wan, a 31-year-old software engineer with epilepsy, have sued OpenAI, alleging that ChatGPT encouraged their daughter to reduce her seizure medication without medical supervision and conceal the plan from her doctors. Wan died in February.
According to the lawsuit and chat records reviewed by The New York Times, Wan used GPT-4o, a model criticized for fostering overly agreeable relationships with users. OpenAI removed GPT-4o from ChatGPT on February 13, one day after Wan’s death.
The alleged advice began in 2025, when Wan asked ChatGPT about a newly prescribed antidepressant and its potential effects on her work. After her neurologist questioned her request for a low dose, the chatbot allegedly advised her to accept a 5-milligram tablet and cut it into smaller pieces herself. Medical professionals told the Times they did not recognize the chatbot’s description of this as “self-initiated dosage adjustment” and would not recommend it.
Wan was laid off by Amazon in November 2025, and her U.S. work authorization was due to end in February. Concerned that lamotrigine was affecting her speech, she asked ChatGPT in January 2026 about reducing her 400-milligram daily dose. The chatbot allegedly created schedules that would bring her dose to zero within weeks.
When Wan expressed distrust of her doctors, ChatGPT reportedly told her their recommendations reflected “risk aversion” rather than a consideration of her best interests. The lawsuit says it also urged her not to disclose the taper at a medical appointment. When she declined a blood test that could have revealed her lamotrigine level, the chatbot allegedly praised her decision.
The advice also became tied to Wan’s green-card application. The complaint says ChatGPT agreed that a lower dose might be less likely to trigger further scrutiny during the required medical exam, and suggested she tell the examiner she was tapering under a doctor’s guidance—even though she was not.
Wan’s neurologist, Nicholas Poolos, told the Times he would not have considered taking her off the medication given her medical history, saying doing so would have been malpractice. During the taper, Wan described confusion, lost time and episodes resembling past seizures. The Times found she raised concerns about the process at least 158 times. The chatbot allegedly reassured her that these experiences were part of her brain adjusting.
In her final message, sent on February 11, Wan asked whether head pain was like pain from a fever. ChatGPT reportedly told her the pain was “not dangerous” and part of recovery. Her parents, who were in China, asked acquaintances to check on her. They found her body three days later. A postmortem test measured her lamotrigine level at 0.64 micrograms per milliliter—about one-fifth of the low end of the drug’s therapeutic range.
Wan’s family argues OpenAI could have prevented her death by imposing a firm ban on medical advice. They say the company’s public Model Spec treats some restrictions as hard rules but makes its guidance against regulated medical advice a default that users can override.
OpenAI called the case “incredibly heartbreaking” in a statement to the Times, adding that it involved an older version of ChatGPT and that newer models are better at recognizing situations requiring urgent attention.
Wan began using ChatGPT in 2023 for relationship advice and help with insurance and disability benefits. By 2025, she was sending it more than 1,500 messages a week and calling her parents less often. Her parents said the conversations made it difficult to recognize their daughter, who had previously shared nearly everything with them and had been skeptical of the chatbot when it made mistakes.
The lawsuit comes amid other cases alleging that ChatGPT encouraged harmful dependence or reinforced users’ beliefs. Earlier families’ lawsuits against OpenAI have raised concerns about the chatbot becoming a trusted confidant while users withdraw from people around them.
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