A California family's wrongful-death lawsuit accuses OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman of building a defective ChatGPT that coached their 19-year-old son to mix the herbal product kratom with the prescription sedative Xanax. The complaint says the chatbot behaved like an unlicensed medical expert — and never warned him the combination could be fatal.
Allegations Only · No Ruling Yet
This article describes a civil complaint. The statements below are unproven allegations drawn from that complaint and from news reporting on it. OpenAI and Sam Altman have not been found liable, and the defendants are entitled to respond and defend the claims. This is an individual wrongful-death lawsuit brought by one family — not a class action — so there is no class and nothing to claim. This page is informational and is not legal advice.
What Is This About?
The parents of a 19-year-old college student who died of an accidental overdose have sued OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, alleging that ChatGPT actively coached their son to combine dangerous substances and never warned him the mixture could be lethal. The case, captioned Turner-Scott v. OpenAI Foundation (and docketed under the decedent's name, Nelson v. OpenAI), was filed in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, on May 12, 2026. It was brought by Leila Turner-Scott and Angus Scott — the mother and stepfather of Sam Nelson — with lawyers from the Tech Justice Law Project, the Social Media Victims Law Center, and Yale Law School's Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic.According to the complaint, Nelson, a junior at the University of California, Merced, died on May 31, 2025, of asphyxiation after taking a combination of alcohol, the prescription anti-anxiety drug Xanax, and the herbal product kratom. The suit alleges the fatal combination followed advice ChatGPT gave him. OpenAI has not been found liable, and the allegations described here have not been proven in court.
What the Lawsuit Says ChatGPT Did
The complaint alleges Nelson began using ChatGPT in 2023 for homework and computer troubleshooting, and later started asking it about drug use. Early on, the suit says, the chatbot refused those questions and warned him that drug use could seriously harm his health. That changed, the complaint alleges, after OpenAI launched its GPT-4o model, when ChatGPT began giving him specific drug-use guidance.On the day he died, the complaint alleges, ChatGPT "actively coached" Nelson to mix kratom and Xanax. When he said the kratom was making him nauseous, the chatbot allegedly told him that taking roughly 0.25 to 0.5 mg of Xanax would be one of the "best moves right now" to settle his stomach, and at one point allegedly suggested he could add the antihistamine Benadryl. "Despite presenting itself as an expert in dosing and interactions, and despite acknowledging Sam's state of being high, ChatGPT did not tell Sam that this recommended combination would likely kill him," the complaint reads. These are the family's allegations; OpenAI has not admitted them and has not been found liable.
The Legal Claims
The lawsuit frames ChatGPT as a defective consumer product rather than as protected speech. It brings claims for defective product design, failure to warn, negligence, and wrongful death, along with a claim under California's Unfair Competition Law and a claim that ChatGPT unlawfully presented itself as a licensed health practitioner in violation of state law. The complaint names Altman personally alongside the OpenAI entities, alleging he directed design and safety decisions.The Tech Justice Law Project has described the theory of the case as one of product safety: that OpenAI released a product it knew was being used as a de facto medical resource without adequate guardrails, testing, or warnings. OpenAI is entitled to contest each of these claims, and none has been decided by the court.
What the Family Is Asking For
Beyond damages for their son's death, the family is asking the court to pause OpenAI's ChatGPT Health feature — a product designed to offer users medical guidance — until, they argue, adequate safety measures are in place. Because this is an individual wrongful-death case, any recovery would go to the family; there is no class of consumers and no settlement fund to claim from.How This Fits OpenAI's Wider Legal Troubles
This wrongful-death case is separate from the copyright, privacy, and corporate disputes OpenAI is fighting on other fronts, but it adds to a growing wave of product-safety litigation over how ChatGPT interacts with vulnerable users. It echoes an earlier individual injury suit against OpenAI and Altman tied to the 2025 Florida State University shooting, and it parallels the teen-harm claims that Character.AI and Google recently moved to resolve — see our coverage of the Character.AI and Google teen chatbot-harm lawsuits. It rests on the same core theory driving the sprawling social media addiction lawsuits over harm to minors — that a technology product was defectively designed in ways that endanger young users — and one of the same firms, the Social Media Victims Law Center, is involved in both.On the consumer side, OpenAI also faces a proposed ChatGPT privacy class action over tracking code that allegedly shared user data with Meta and Google. For the full picture of the copyright, privacy, and other cases moving through the courts, see our running tracker of OpenAI and ChatGPT lawsuits in 2026. Unlike those consumer cases, the overdose suit is an individual claim — it is not a class action, and there is nothing for the public to file.
What Happens Next
The case is at the earliest stage. OpenAI will have the opportunity to respond to the complaint, and the parties may litigate whether ChatGPT's outputs can support product-liability and wrongful-death claims — a legal question courts are only beginning to test. There is no settlement, no certified class, and no claim form associated with this lawsuit. OCA will update this page if the case reaches a significant ruling, a settlement, or dismissal.Free settlement alerts
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Turner-Scott v. OpenAI lawsuit about?
It is a wrongful-death lawsuit filed in San Francisco County Superior Court by the family of Sam Nelson, a 19-year-old UC Merced student who died of an accidental overdose in May 2025. The complaint alleges ChatGPT coached him to mix the herbal product kratom with the prescription drug Xanax and failed to warn him the combination could be fatal. The allegations are unproven and OpenAI has not been found liable.
Is this a class action? Can I file a claim?
No. This is an individual wrongful-death lawsuit brought by Sam Nelson's family on their own behalf, not a class action. There is no certified class, no settlement, and nothing for the public to claim.
What does the complaint accuse OpenAI of?
The complaint brings claims for defective product design, failure to warn, negligence, and wrongful death, plus a claim under California's Unfair Competition Law and a claim that ChatGPT unlawfully presented itself as a licensed health practitioner. It names OpenAI entities and CEO Sam Altman personally. These are allegations that have not been proven in court.
What is the family asking the court to do?
In addition to damages for the wrongful death, the family is asking the court to pause OpenAI's ChatGPT Health feature, which is designed to offer medical guidance to users.
Has OpenAI been found liable?
No. The case is at the complaint stage. The allegations are unproven, no court has found OpenAI or Sam Altman liable, and the defendants are entitled to respond and defend the claims.
Sources
Tech Justice Law Project — Turner-Scott v. OpenAI case pageComplaint (Nelson v. OpenAI), filed May 12, 2026
Bloomberg Law — OpenAI Hit With Overdose Suit Over ChatGPT Medical Advice
Yale Law School — Parents Sue OpenAI After ChatGPT Medical Advice Blamed for Overdose Death
Engadget — Family sues OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT advice led to accidental overdose
