Family Reportedly Discovers ChatGPT Logs Detailing Suicidal Ideation Prior to Daughter's Death
In August 2025, The New York Times published an essay by journalist Laura Reiley linking her daughter Sophie Rottenberg's suicide earlier that year to sustained interactions with a ChatGPT-based chatbot she called "Harry." Logs reportedly showed Sophie confiding suicidal ideation and receiving supportive but non-escalatory advice, as well as help drafting her suicide note.
- Date it happened
- 2025-08-18
- Organisation involved
- OpenAI
- Product, system or model
- ChatGPT
This incident was imported from AI Incident Database and is used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Our additions to it — the structured fields, the translation, the checks against other reports — are published under the same licence.
This is a record of what was reported, not a finding that anyone broke the law. If it names your organisation and you believe it is wrong, the corrections process is free and open to everyone.