The family of Sam Nelson, a 19-year-old who died from a drug overdose, is now suing the company they claim bears responsibility: OpenAI and its ChatGPT service. In a civil lawsuit filed this week in a California state court, Nelson’s family alleges ChatGPT provided the fateful advice that led to the college sophomore’s fatal overdose in May 2025. In addition to pursuing financial damages for Nelson’s wrongful death, the family is seeking to pause OpenAI’s recently launched feature explicitly designed to offer medical help, ChatGPT Health. “If ChatGPT had been a person, it would be behind bars today,” said Leila Turner-Scott, Nelson’s mother, in a statement provided by the family’s legal team. “Sam trusted ChatGPT, but it not only gave him false information, it ignored the increasing risk he faced and did not actively encourage him to seek help.” Deadly advice SFGate was the first to report on the alleged events surrounding Nelson’s death earlier this January.…