A growing number of lawsuits are seeking to hold OpenAI accountable in cases where plaintiffs say the company’s ChatGPT chatbot played a role in crimes and deaths. As the question of liability plays out in court, some experts are unsure whether these legal queries will bring about a massive change in the industry. “When you get down to it, what is your actual causal theory of how X technology harmed Y individual? It is not that easy to prove that,” said John Wihbey, professor of media and technology at Northeastern and director of the AI-Media Strategies Lab.
“I could be wrong, but I would be surprised if there’s blockbuster case after blockbuster case, as we had in the tobacco settlements, where it sort of fundamentally reshaped an entire industry,” he said, referring to the landmark 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement that, among other things, restricted tobacco marketing and required indefinite payments to states for smoking-related healthcare expenses.
The recent cases all involve tragic instances of death, and often, suicides. Last December, for instance, the estate of an 83-year-old Connecticut woman who was killed by her 56-year-old-son who then killed himself, sued OpenAI claiming conversations her son had with ChatGPT led to their deaths by murder-suicide.
