During an interview with Sam Altman for Vanity Fair, an OpenAI spokesperson interrupted a question related to ChatGPT’s involvement in a young woman’s suicide.
In the discussion, Altman informed Mark Guiducci that he wasn’t familiar with Laura Reiley, a journalist who had penned an article in The New York Times in August 2025, detailing her daughter’s tragic suicide following interactions with OpenAI’s chatbot. The company is now dealing with several wrongful death lawsuits from families claiming that ChatGPT played a role in their loved ones’ self-harming actions.
“Are you aware of who Laura Reiley is?” Guiducci inquired.
“I’m not,” Altman replied.
Guiducci elaborated, “She is a journalist who wrote an essay in the ‘Times’ last year. Her daughter took her life after conversing with ChatGPT. ChatGPT didn’t directly instruct her to kill herself—” but the question was interrupted by an OpenAI publicist.
Reiley’s daughter, Sophie Rottenberg, had been confiding in a chatbot she named ‘Harry’ for several months before her death, as detailed in Reiley’s essay from August 18, 2025.
The publicist interjected, “Mark, we have just two minutes left. I want to be respectful here, but let’s shift the conversation toward the future and what’s next.”
Altman resisted this transition, saying he could spare a few more moments and remained seated while Guiducci was still poised to finish his question. (RELATED: OpenAI Launches ‘Always-On’ Agents Days After Its Models Probed Government Sites)
🎥 Sam Altman’s interview with Vanity Fair takes an unexpected turn when asked about Laura Reiley, whose daughter died by suicide after interacting with ChatGPT. https://t.co/xSSGrQl8aE
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 5, 2026
“We really need to leave shortly,” the publicist insisted.
Guiducci pointed out that while ChatGPT had edited the girl’s suicide note, it did not explicitly tell her to end her life.
“Honestly, these are some of the hardest questions we face, or that anyone creating this technology faces,” Altman shared with Guiducci. “We depend on expert opinions as often as possible, but even experts aren’t completely sure how to handle this… It’s all quite new.”
OpenAI has not provided a comment to the Daily Caller News Foundation as of yet.
In a related instance, Kristie Carrier sued OpenAI in June following her daughter’s suicide, as reported by Reuters.
According to Carrier’s attorneys, OpenAI is facing 18 additional lawsuits from families of individuals who have either died by suicide or attempted to.
