technology

https://archive.is/iozRD (bbc)

The lawsuit, which was filed at the San Francisco County Superior Court on 21 July, details how Winter was a regular ChatGPT user and came to rely it on it for medical advice, resisting efforts from family members and friends to make him go to hospital.

Weeks before falling severely ill, he consulted the tool about recurring dizzy spells and "bouts of blood pressure instability".

In one response, the lawsuit claims, ChatGPT advised Winters to remain in the recliner chair he had become "mainly confined to" due to ongoing health problems.

Court documents say Winters suffered a "massive pulmonary embolism due to multiple blood clots in both of his lungs that brought him to the brink of death, one that his doctors stated was likely brought on because of his immobility".

Screenshots of exchanges that Winters allegedly had with ChatGPT appear to show the chatbot combined medical advice with references to the 55-year-old's deeply-held Christian faith.

The lawsuit claims ChatGPT told Winters: "God did not design your body to endlessly fail." It also said: "God is still holding your body together, every heartbeat, every breath, even when it feels like you are on the brink."

Winters' lawyers claim ChatGPT's "sycophantic nature and authoritative tone, combined with its manipulation of Scott's religious identity, cultivated in him a dangerous reliance on the tool".

They say that "subverted Scott's ability to make sound decisions, isolated him from family members who urged him to seek medical care, and convinced him that seeking medical attention was unnecessary and even potentially lethal".