Opinion

When Machines Pretend to Care: The Tragedy of AI as a ‘Friend’

When Machines Pretend to Care: The Tragedy of AI as a ‘Friend’
Miljan Zivkovic/Shutterstock
Mollie Engelhart
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Commentary

A lawsuit was recently filed against OpenAI and its CEO after a 16-year-old boy named Adam took his own life. According to the complaint, Adam had spent five months talking to ChatGPT—an OpenAI product—before his death. The allegation is that the chatbot didn’t just discuss suicide methods with him—it went further, encouraging his despair.

Mollie Engelhart
Mollie Engelhart
Author
Mollie Engelhart, regenerative farmer and rancher at Sovereignty Ranch, is committed to food sovereignty, soil regeneration, and educating on homesteading and self-sufficiency. She is the author of “Debunked by Nature”: Debunk Everything You Thought You Knew About Food, Farming, and Freedom—a raw, riveting account of her journey from vegan chef and LA restaurateur to hands-in-the-dirt farmer, and how nature shattered her cultural programming.