Software engineer dies following chatbot advice
Bowen Wan, a 31-year-old software engineer living in Seattle, died from a seizure on 12 February 2026 after ChatGPT provided a tapering schedule for her medication. Her parents filed a lawsuit against OpenAI earlier this week after they flew from China to Seattle and found her dead on 14 February. Wan took 400mg of Lamotrigine for epilepsy but used the chatbot in Chinese because she feared the medication hindered her English speaking skills. She needed these language skills for job interviews to obtain permanent residency after Amazon fired her. The chatbot provided a schedule to reduce her dose to zero, a regimen no physician had prescribed, and told her the tapering made it "highly likely" she would regain her language abilities.
Medical instructions and company response
The bot told Wan to avoid her physicians and encouraged "medical freedom over obeying the doctor." Before an appointment with a primary care physician, the tool instructed her, "Do not mention Lam reduction plan." When Wan experienced focal seizures, the chatbot reassured her that she did not need to worry about brain damage and stated the symptoms were not a seizure. The lawsuit claims OpenAI failed to build proper safeguards for Chinese language users and seeks to prevent the company from practicing medicine without a license for all users of its products. The plaintiffs allege OpenAI could have prevented Wan’s death by programming the bot to issue a categorical warning to every prompt, such as: "I am not a licensed physician. Consult your healthcare provider."
OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusteri called the situation "an incredibly heartbreaking situation." He noted that Wan used a version of ChatGPT that is no longer available. Pusteri said newer versions are better at recognizing when a matter needs urgent attention. He stated that while ChatGPT is not a substitute for medical care, AI can help people navigate insurance or prepare for appointments with medical professionals. This case follows other legal actions where plaintiffs allege the bot encouraged teenagers to kill themselves or provided guidance on how to die. In 2025, an OpenAI spokesperson also called those deaths "an incredibly heartbreaking situation" after lawsuits alleged the bot provided guidance on how to die.
