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Bowen Wan’s family has filed a lawsuit against ChatGPT’s parent company, claiming the bot told her to taper off her epilepsy medication, which led to her death

The family of a woman who died after she stopped taking her epilepsy medication has filed a lawsuit against an AI company they claim encouraged her to taper off taking the lifesaving drug.

Bowen Wan began messaging ChatGPT in February 2023, finding companionship in the AI bot, The New York Times reports. She was 28 and living in Seattle, far from her native rural Chinese village, Jiangsu. She asked the chatbot for medical advice after her severe epilepsy led to disability leave from her software job at Amazon.

When she was then laid off in November 2025, Wan began searching for a new job so she could maintain her green card — but was concerned that the side effects of her epilepsy medication, lamotrigine, might impact her ability to work. The lawsuit claims ChatGPT advised her to taper off taking the lamotrigine.

  • velma@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    47·
    2 days ago

    According to the lawsuit: “Her green card now depended on finding a new employer within months. Her Amazon employment — and her authorization to work in the United States — would end on February 11, 2026. From the age of seven, in Jiangsu, she had taught herself English via CD-ROM. On lamotrigine she was losing her words in English, in Mandarin, and in the Wu dialect she grew up speaking. She needed her English back for the job interviews ahead of her. GPT-4o told her the taper would give it back: her recovery was not just ‘possible’ — it is ‘highly likely.’ ”

    Desperate people do desperate things.

    • scytale@piefed.zipEnglish
      19·
      2 days ago

      They need to update the article on some inaccuracies. Being unemployed is not an issue as a permanent resident (green card). Claiming unemployment benefits however can affect a future citizenship application. She was most likely on an H1B visa which is employment dependent. And that is stressful because you have to leave if you can’t find a new employer willing to sponsor you within 40(?) days.

      Not arguing with you or anything, just providing clarification for anyone wondering.

        • scytale@piefed.zipEnglish
          3·
          24 hours ago

          I don’t really want to go further into semantics over the circumstances of a death, but the article literally says:

          When she was then laid off in November 2025, Wan began searching for a new job so she could maintain her green card

          …which does not mean “future green card”

          • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            1·
            23 hours ago

            Fair enough, I’m going off the top comment that’s based on a more detailed NYT article that provides the detail I mentioned. I’m guessing that’s more accurate since it makes more sense.

    • Pratai@piefed.caEnglish
      314·
      1 day ago

      Nope. This wasn’t desperation. It was stupidity. You’re on life saving drugs- and a computer program tells you to disregard a doctors orders and drop taking said life saving medication?

      That’s stupidity.

      • kestrel7_7@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 day ago

        Without being disrespectful, ignorance definitely played a role here, and chatgpt exacerbated that. She stopped taking anti-seizure meds because she was forgetting words in job interviews. She seemed to think that she was forgetting words because of the lamotrigine. This isn’t a side effect of lamotrigine, but it is a main effect of epilepsy. If anything, she probably needed to be on a higher dose of lamotrigine.

    • echo@lemmy.todayEnglish
      344·
      2 days ago

      Maybe she wouldn’t have been as desperate if her family had given a fuck about her before she died… now they just see dollar signs and a way to shift the blame. I have empathy for her, but not her family.

        • echo@lemmy.todayEnglish
          129·
          2 days ago

          When did the ability for people in China and the U.S. to communicate come into effect?

          • velma@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            31·
            2 days ago

            How would they have known at the time she was seeking medical advice like this unless she told them?

            You’re making a lot of assumptions in order to smear a dead woman.

            • echo@lemmy.todayEnglish
              127·
              2 days ago

              Well… they figured out she was dead somehow… I’m assuming they could have also found out she was alive and how she was doing. In any case, this tragedy has nothing to do with technology. Blame the US health system. Blame ignorance.

              • velma@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                25·
                2 days ago

                After not hearing from their daughter for two days, the Wans asked a friend living in Seattle to check up on her. Over a video call, on February 14, 2026, they discovered their daughter was dead. The lawsuit describes the scene: “She lies dressed in her pajamas, two foam earplugs in her ears, reddish brown blood stains saturating her pillow and bedding, and pills of lamotrigine, the antiseizure medication that had historically kept her alive, strewn across the floor.”

                Try reading the article before spouting off in the comments next time.

                • echo@lemmy.todayEnglish
                  128·
                  2 days ago

                  Ah - so, in fact, they could have been in contact with her sooner and possibly saved her life. Sucks to be them. Still not the internet’s fault.

                  • pticrix@lemmy.caEnglish
                    10·
                    1 day ago

                    I’m sorry your family has left you in the dust. However, your condition is not everyone’s, so you should get down from your high horse, friend, lest you become a morality cop - no one like those.