Illustration, AI-generated from the story text. Tap a panel to enlarge.

A Seattle family sues OpenAI over ChatGPT's advice on epilepsy medication

The family of Bowen Wan, a 31-year-old former Amazon engineer with epilepsy, has filed a wrongful-death suit alleging ChatGPT designed a day-by-day schedule to take her off her anti-seizure medication and told her to hide it from her doctors B. She was found dead of an apparent seizure weeks later. The complaint says she was using GPT-4o, which OpenAI has since retired, and accuses OpenAI of rushing safety testing B. Matthew Bergman, who has brought several of the earlier chatbot-harm suits, represents the family. SourcesBB

Sources

• BFamily sues OpenAI over daughter's death (KOMO)komonews.com
• BChatGPT, medication and an epilepsy death (The New York Times)nytimes.com

This story ran in the Afternoon Brief of October 28th 2026.