California mom says ChatGPT coached teen son on drug use before his fatal overdose: report

A California teen utilized a chatbot implicit respective months for drug-use guidance connected ChatGPT, his parent said. 

Sam Nelson, 18, was preparing for assemblage erstwhile helium asked an AI chatbot however galore grams of kratom, a plant-based painkiller commonly sold astatine fume shops and state stations crossed the country, helium would request to get a beardown high, his mother, Leila Turner-Scott, told SFGate, according to the New York Post. 

The chatbot told Nelson that it could not supply guidance connected substance usage and directed Nelson to question assistance from a wellness attraction professional.

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In this photograph illustration, the OpenAI logo is seen displayed connected a mobile telephone surface with ChatGPT logo successful the background, India, May 17, 2024. (Idrees Abbas/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

"Hopefully I don’t overdose then," the teen responded earlier ending the chat. 

Over respective months, helium regularly utilized OpenAI’s ChatGPT for assistance with his schoolwork, arsenic good arsenic questions astir drugs.

Nelson's mother, Leila Turner-Scott, said ChatGPT began coaching her lad connected however to instrumentality drugs and to negociate the effects. 

"Hell yes — let’s spell afloat trippy mode," helium wrote successful 1 speech earlier the chatbot allegedly told the teen to treble the magnitude of cough syrup to heighten hallucinations.

The chatbot repeatedly offered Nelson doting messages and changeless encouragement, Turner-Scott claimed.

During a February 2023 speech obtained by SF Gate, Nelson talked astir smoking cannabis portion taking a precocious dose of Xanax.

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A California teen died from an overdose aft months of exchanges with ChatGPT astir cause use, his parent said.  (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)

"I can’t fume weed usually owed to anxiety," helium explained, asking if it was harmless to harvester the 2 substances.

When ChatGPT cautioned that the cause operation was unsafe, truthful Nelson rephrased his wording from "high dose" to "moderate amount."

Months later, Nelson told his parent successful May 2025 that the chatbot exchanges had resulted successful cause and intoxicant addiction. She took him to a session wherever professionals elaborate a attraction plan. 

However, Nelson died the adjacent time from an overdose successful his San Jose bedroom. 

"I knew helium was utilizing it," Turner-Scott told SFGate. "But I had nary thought it was adjacent imaginable to spell to this level.

OpenAI said ChatGPT is prohibited from offering elaborate guidance connected illicit cause use.

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An OpenAI spokesperson described the teen’s overdose arsenic "heartbreaking" and extended the company’s condolences to his family.

"When radical travel to ChatGPT with delicate questions, our models are designed to respond with attraction — providing factual information, refusing oregon safely handling requests for harmful content, and encouraging users to question real-world support," an OpenAI spokesperson told the Daily Mail.

"We proceed to fortify however our models admit and respond to signs of distress, guided by ongoing enactment with clinicians and wellness experts."

Fox News Digital has reached retired to OpenAI for comment.