Credit: Edgar Cervantes / Android AuthorityTL;DROpenAI faces a wrongful-death lawsuit after ChatGPT allegedly advised 19-year-old Sam Nelson on combining kratom and Xanax.Nelson’s parents claim ChatGPT became an “illicit drug coach” while he sought advice on experimenting with drugs.OpenAI denies wrongdoing, saying the implicated model is no longer available and that ChatGPT is not a substitute for medical care.It’s understandable to trust AI chatbots for dinner ideas or tech support, but advice about medical issues should certainly be something you leave to the experts. As informed as they may sound, these chatbots aren’t doctors, and we’ve seen from the sychophantic nature that they may just have a vested interest in keeping you happy. A new lawsuit alleges that this became a dangerous combination when a 19-year-old used ChatGPT for advice on “safely” experimenting with drugs. As reported by Ars Technica, OpenAI is facing another wrongful-death lawsuit after the parents of Sam Nelson alleged that GPT-4o encouraged him to take a lethal mix of substances. Nelson died in May 2025 from what the lawsuit describes as a fatal combination of alcohol, Xanax, and kratom.