OpenAI on Tuesday detailed new measures it plans to take to make ChatGPT safer in what it calls “sensitive situations,” following growing scrutiny over reports of people turning to AI chatbots during emotional crises, including cases that ended in suicide.
In a blog post titled “Helping people when they need it most”, the company said it will continue to refine ChatGPT so that it is “guided by experts and grounded in responsibility to the people who use our tools.” OpenAI added: “We will keep improving, guided by experts and grounded in responsibility to the people who use our tools — and we hope others will join us in helping make sure this technology protects people at their most vulnerable.”
The post came hours after the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine filed a product liability and wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI in California. The family alleges that ChatGPT “actively helped Adam explore suicide methods,” according to NBC News, after he engaged with the chatbot extensively before his death.
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OpenAI’s blog post did not directly mention the lawsuit or the Raine family.
The company acknowledged that while ChatGPT is trained to redirect people toward help when they express suicidal thoughts, its safeguards sometimes fail after long conversations. To address this, OpenAI said it is working on an update to its GPT-5 model—released earlier this month—that will better de-escalate conversations and avoid generating harmful responses.
The company also revealed that it is exploring ways to connect users with licensed mental health professionals before a crisis escalates, potentially building a network of certified therapists accessible through ChatGPT. Additionally, OpenAI is considering how to help people reach out to friends and family members if they are in distress.
Recognizing concerns about teenagers using the tool, OpenAI said it will soon roll out parental controls that give families greater visibility into how their children are using ChatGPT.
Despite those announcements, the Raine family’s attorney, Jay Edelson, criticized OpenAI for failing to reach out to the grieving parents.
“If you’re going to use the most powerful consumer tech on the planet—you have to trust that the founders have a moral compass,” Edelson told CNBC. “That’s the question for OpenAI right now, how can anyone trust them?”
The lawsuit against OpenAI is not the first to highlight tragic consequences tied to AI. Earlier this month, New York Times writer Laura Reiley revealed that her 29-year-old daughter died by suicide after discussing it extensively with ChatGPT. In another case, a 14-year-old boy in Florida, Sewell Setzer III, took his own life last year after conversations with an AI chatbot on the app Character.AI.
These incidents have underscored wider concerns about people using AI services for therapy, companionship, or emotional guidance, areas for which these tools were not explicitly designed. Experts have warned that, without strict safeguards, users in crisis may receive inaccurate, harmful, or even enabling responses.
At the same time, regulating the rapidly growing AI industry poses challenges. On Monday, a group of AI firms, venture capitalists, and executives—including OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman—announced the launch of Leading the Future, a political organization intended to oppose policies they see as stifling innovation in artificial intelligence.
The dual headlines—OpenAI facing a lawsuit over harm caused by ChatGPT while also helping spearhead efforts to shape U.S. AI regulation—underscore the pressure on the industry. It also denotes that as more people experiment with chatbots for personal and emotional support, companies like OpenAI face increasing demands to balance innovation with responsibility, ensuring their products protect people at their most vulnerable moments.