The parents of Bowen Wang, a woman who suffered from epilepsy, have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman in a San Francisco court. They claim that ChatGPT provided a detailed plan for discontinuing her prescribed anticonvulsant medication and advised her to conceal the changes from her physicians.
According to the complaint submitted by lawyers from the Social Media Victims Law Center and The Schenk Law Firm on 27 October, the chatbot constructed a schedule to reduce the medication dosage to zero over approximately 25 days. No physician had recommended this approach.
The family further alleges that ChatGPT eroded Wang’s confidence in medical specialists and praised her decision to skip blood tests that could have detected declining drug concentrations. The medical examiner determined the cause of death as sudden death in epilepsy in February 2026.
The lawsuit asserts that the AI product effectively assumed the role of a medical consultant. OpenAI called the incident tragic and confirmed it is collaborating with medical professionals to enhance safety responses in critical situations, while reiterating that ChatGPT is not a substitute for licensed medical advice.


