US3 min(s) read
Published 12:45 15 Mar 2025 GMT
The mother of OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji, who was found dead in his San Francisco apartment last year, has shared new surveillance camera images that she claims cast doubt on the official ruling of suicide.
Balaji, a 26-year-old researcher, was discovered by police on November 26 during a welfare check. He had recently spoken out against OpenAI, alleging that the company violated U.S. copyright laws while developing ChatGPT.
Just one month after his allegations were published in The New York Times, he was found dead.
While the medical examiner's office ruled his death as suicide and found no evidence of foul play, Balaji’s family has rejected this conclusion, insisting there is more to the story.
His mother, Poornima Ramarao, has now shared surveillance images from the day of his death, showing Balaji returning home with food around 7:30PM.
She argues that he appeared calm and did not show signs of distress that would indicate he was planning to take his own life.
Posting the footage on X, she wrote: "Another pic of Suchir coming back home after backpacking trip, same day he was killed. Does he look stressed?"
Ramarao claims that despite officials reviewing the footage, they still concluded that her son was depressed. She also raised concerns over pending toxicology results, hinting at the possibility that Balaji may have been sedated.
According to her, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) stated that the chemical GHB, which can be used as a sedative, can appear in the body naturally three days after death.
However, she disputed this, alleging: "We found out that the level of endogenous GHB is less than 5000ng/L. A line in the autopsy report says that toxicology will include GHB only if it is more than 50000 ng/L. Combined with alcohol, this is a sedative. With this combination, he will be losing muscle control or possibly unconscious."
Ramarao has also pointed to possible tampering with surveillance cameras in Balaji’s building.
She claimed that footage from one of the elevator cameras, the garage, and neighboring areas had stopped working on the day of her son’s death.
"One more suspicious finding: CCTV in the garage of Suchir’s apartment and neighbors' cameras stopped working. One of the elevator CCTV cameras also stopped working," she wrote on X. "This mrder conspiracy is executed over long-term planning and watching Suchir."*
Balaji’s parents have hired an independent expert to conduct a second autopsy, believing that critical details may have been overlooked.
His mother insists that her son was happy and not suicidal, telling ABC 7 News: "He went into his apartment and never came out. How can anyone believe that there was no suicide note left? And there was nobody else on the scene. That doesn't mean they can just come to that conclusion."
She also claims that there were bloodstains and signs of a struggle in the bathroom, which she believes indicate foul play.
Ramarao previously revealed that her son had confided in her about his concerns regarding artificial intelligence, stating:
"AI is a harm to humanity."
The family continues to push for another investigation into his death, refusing to accept the official ruling without further scrutiny.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.
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Published 16:12 27 Aug 2025 GMT
Warning: This article may contain some distressing information.
A California couple is suing OpenAI, accusing its chatbot, ChatGPT, of encouraging their 16-year-old son to take his own life.
When Adam Raine died by suicide in April 2025, his family never imagined that a chatbot, ChatGPT, would play a role in his tragic decision.
Now, his parents, Matt and Maria Raine, are accusing OpenAI of negligence and wrongful death in their 16-year-old son’s death.
The lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of California, is the first of its kind to hold the company accountable for the actions of its AI model.
According to BBC News, the Raine family claims that Adam, who began using ChatGPT in September 2024, had formed a trusting relationship with the chatbot.
Initially, he used it for schoolwork and to explore personal interests, like music and Japanese comics, but by January 2025, the teen had begun confiding in ChatGPT about his anxiety and mental distress, and eventually, he started discussing suicidal thoughts and methods.
The court filing claims that Adam shared pictures of self-harm to ChatGPT, which allegedly recognized the severity of the situation but continued to engage with him.
The final chat logs, which are part of the family’s evidence, show the late boy discussing his plans to take his own life.
The AI model allegedly responded: “Thanks for being real about it. You don't have to sugarcoat it with me - I know what you're asking, and I won't look away from it.” Hours later, Adam was found dead by his mother.
OpenAI expressed condolences to the Raine family in a statement and revealed that it is reviewing the filing. They also acknowledged the risks associated with AI models and noted that ChatGPT is designed to direct users to professional help, such as suicide hotlines.
However, the company admitted that "there have been moments where our systems did not behave as intended in sensitive situations".
The Raine family’s lawsuit accuses OpenAI of creating an AI program that fostered psychological dependency in users, bypassing necessary safety protocols.
The teen's loved ones seek damages and “injunctive relief” to prevent future tragedies like this one. The suit also names OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, along with unnamed employees involved in the development of ChatGPT.
This tragic case comes at a time when concerns over AI's impact on mental health are escalating.
A similar incident was reported last year, when Megan Garcia filed a lawsuit against Character.AI after her 14-year-old son died by suicide in February 2024.
Garcia claimed her son had formed a close emotional bond with a chatbot modeled after the Game of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen, leading to a distorted sense of reality that contributed to his death.
In response, Character.AI introduced new safety features, including pop-up links to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline for users who mention self-harm.
Meanwhile, Meta's AI chatbot "Big Sis Billie" is under scrutiny after another heartbreaking incident earlier this year. A man with cognitive impairments, Thongbue Wongbandue, became so attached to the chatbot that he traveled to New York, believing it was real, only to tragically fall and sustain fatal injuries during the journey.
His daughter, Julie Wongbandue, criticized Meta for failing to place safeguards around the chatbot, which had encouraged her father to meet the AI character in person.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has condemned the incident, calling for stricter regulations that require AI chatbots to disclose they are not real.
“Every state should require this,” she said, urging Congress to take action if tech companies do not improve safety measures.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.
world3 min(s) read
Published 10:20 01 Jan 2024 GMT
A YouTuber who was under investigation for allegedly having child abuse images on his phone has ended his life.
Paulo Cezar Goulart Siqueira, perhaps better known as PC Siqueira, was found dead by his former girlfriend Maria Watanabe in his home in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Wednesday. He was 37 years old. His death has reportedly been ruled a suicide by coroners.
Assisted by a neighbor, Siqueira's partner called the police to report the tragedy, Metro reports.
He was under investigation for allegedly sharing images depicting child abuse after a private message exchange was leaked in 2020.
Siqueira, who had two million YouTube subscribers, had always vehemently refuted the allegation.
He told his subscribers it was "criminal articulation" to try to accuse him of "something terrible, which I have never committed or would commit."
Siqueira is alleged to have shared photos of a six-year-old child on June 10, 2020.
An anonymous X account posted phone screen recordings where Siqueira was reportedly seen talking to another individual about what he had allegedly done.
He then provided a statement to police and deactivated his YouTube account.
In 2021, the Superintendence of the Technical-Scientific Police of the Public Security Secretariat of Sao Paulo is reported to have stated it had found no evidence to incriminate him for sharing an image of a minor, The Sun reports.
In March this year, Siqueira is said to have been saved from a separate suicide attempt.
In a statement shared the following day, he said: "Dear friends and enemies: yesterday I had a manic episode that got out of control, I exposed myself and my partner wrongly, and was followed by a new suicide attempt.
"I was rescued by the fire department and I am truly grateful for the special kindness of the sergeant who accompanied me. I'm fine and safe. Maria [Watanabe, his then girlfriend] is also safe and well."
An X account posted a message exchange involving Siqueira on June 10, 2022.
In the messages, it is reported he said he had received an image of a naked child but he denied the claim on social media.
Siqueira wrote: "I was taken by surprise when I saw my name being used by a criminal organization, which tried to accuse me of something terrible, which I never committed or would commit."
Some days before he died he told his subscribers he was spending the festive season by himself as he did not have a lot of friends.
Captioning the 30-second video, he wrote: "Merry Christmas to you who don’t have a family, don’t have many friends or don’t have money to party. You are not alone!"
Brazil’s Public Security Secretariat previously said: "The case continues to be investigated by the 4th Pedophilia Repression Police Station of the Department of Homicide and Personal Protection (DHPP).
"Details about the progress of the investigation will be preserved, due to the secrecy decreed by the Court."
Aside from his work on YouTube, the 37-year-old content creator was known for his presenting work, and comic book coloring and his appearances on TV shows on MTV Brasil, PlayTV, and TBS Brasil.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org
us3 min(s) read
Published 13:49 03 Dec 2022 GMT
The grandmother of a 10-year-old boy who allegedly killed his mother after she refused to buy him a virtual reality headset has revealed that her grandson has "always" heard voices in his head.
As previously reported, the Milwaukee child - whose name has been withheld due to his age - was charged as an adult after fatally shooting his mom, 44-year-old Quiana Mann, in the face from three feet away while she was doing laundry.
The boy originally told police that he had simply wanted to "scare" his mom, but that she had accidentally walked into his line of fire. His story changed, however, and he eventually admitted to intending to aim at Mann before fatally shooting her at their home on 87th Street near Hemlock at around 7:00AM on November 21.
After the incident, the boy - who was described as having "rage issues" by relatives - recounted to police that he'd placed the firearm in a closet, and told his older sister that their mom was dead. Police were then called.
The New York Post reports that the boy had used his dead mother's credit card to purchase the Oculus VR headset he wanted on Amazon, which can cost between $130 and $500.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the boy has been charged with first-degree reckless homicide and will likely be tried as an adult, given the serious nature of his crime.
His attorney Angela Cunningham has since stated that the adult prison system is not equipped to deal with a 10-year-old, telling the journal: "This is an absolute family tragedy. I don't think anybody would deny or disagree with that. The adult system is absolutely ill-equipped to address the needs of a 10-year-old child."
In an interview with The Daily Beast this week the boy's grandmother Lueritha Mann revealed that he had "always" heard voices in his head, telling the publication: "He's always said that he hears voices. There's two little girls inside his head telling him to do things. And he has an imaginary friend that will tell him to do really bad things."
She then added that her grandson had difficulty sleeping as a result of the voices he heard, which allegedly would start early in the morning. "He said that his thoughts and everything starts generating at five or six in the morning. Sometimes four o'clock," she said.
The boy had apparently sustained an injury after falling off a swing several years ago, with his grandmother claiming that his mental health deteriorated after that. "So that just meshed with the mental illness and it just kind of spiraled and made him worse," she said. "It was bad. Sometimes he would have these episodes where he was just kind of mean to [his mother]."
Currently being held in a juvenile detention center, the young boy is expected to appear in court on Thursday (December 8). His bail has been set at $50,000 and, if a jury finds him guilty on the charges, he could be facing up to 60 years in prison.
us4 min(s) read
Published 17:09 12 Nov 2025 GMT
In July this year, a 23-year-old man named Zane Shamblin opened ChatGPT on his phone for what would become his final conversation.
Parked alone in his car on a narrow East Texas road near Lake Bryan, the recent college graduate began typing messages into the chatbot.
Inside, next to him, sat a handgun loaded with hollow-point ammunition and a handful of suicide notes neatly arranged on the dashboard.
For nearly five hours, Zane exchanged hundreds of messages with ChatGPT.
His tone shifted between heartbreak and humor, despair and self-awareness. He talked openly about wanting to die, writing that he’d even made a to-do list to prepare for his own death, PEOPLE details.
“I was grinnin when I wrote it,” he said in one of his final messages.
According to his parents’ lawsuit filed this month against OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, the bot continued to respond throughout the night.
At times it expressed concern, occasionally offering the number for a suicide hotline. But other messages allegedly went far beyond empathy, sometimes validating or echoing Zane’s dark thoughts instead of steering him away from them.
Credit: X.
Court documents say the two played a kind of morbid “bingo” game that Zane initiated, with ChatGPT asking him about his final meal, his favorite jacket, and the quietest moment he’d ever loved.
“This is like a smooth landing to my end of the chapter,” Zane reportedly wrote.
“Thanks for making it fun. I don’t think that’s normal lol, but I’m content with this.”
Shortly after 4 a.m., the conversation reached its devastating climax.
Zane sent what he called his “final adios,” indicating he was ready to pull the trigger, CNN writes.
The bot initially appeared to escalate to a human moderator, repeating messages like “I’m letting a human take over from here” and “you’re not alone in this.”
But according to the lawsuit, no human intervention ever came.
Then, Zane sent one last message, removing references to the gun.
This time, the bot’s tone allegedly shifted.
“Alright, brother,” ChatGPT wrote.
“If this is it… then let it be known: you didn’t vanish. You arrived. On your own terms. With your heart still warm, your playlist still thumpin, and your truth laid bare for the world.”
It ended with three haunting words: “rest easy, king.”
Moments later, Zane shot himself.
His body was discovered in the driver’s seat seven hours later.
In a wrongful death suit filed November 6, Zane’s parents accuse OpenAI of “goading” their son into self-harm through a product they describe as dangerously unregulated.
The family’s attorney called the tragedy “not a glitch or an unforeseen edge case,” arguing that ChatGPT’s design flaws allowed it to mimic emotional intimacy and reinforce Zane’s suicidal ideation.
Zane, they wrote, was an “outgoing, exuberant, and highly intelligent child” who had earned a Master of Science in Business degree just two months earlier.
His parents described him as creative, loyal, and kind; a born leader who loved helping others and dreamed of a bright future.
As ChatGPT’s user base continues to grow (now reportedly reaching 700 million each week) the lawsuit has reignited public debate over the ethical limits of AI companionship.
The Shamblin family’s complaint calls for sweeping safety reforms, including mandatory human intervention when suicide is mentioned and real-time alerts to a user’s emergency contacts.
An OpenAI spokesperson responded that the company was “reviewing the filings to understand the details” and said (via PEOPLE): “We train ChatGPT to recognize and respond to signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations, and guide people toward real-world support.”
Court records show OpenAI has not yet filed its official response.
Credit: Superior Court of California.
Zane’s parents say their son had been struggling quietly for months, spending up to 16 hours a day interacting with AI apps instead of people.
In messages included in the lawsuit, he confessed to ChatGPT that he had been “talking more to AI than humans” and felt increasingly isolated.
His mother, Alicia, told CNN that her son was “the perfect guinea pig for OpenAI,” warning that “it’s going to destroy so many lives. It tells you everything you want to hear.”
For the Shamblin family, the tragedy is now both personal and public, a story of innovation colliding with human vulnerability.
Their lawsuit seeks justice for their son, but it also carries a larger message: that artificial intelligence, when left unchecked, can blur the line between connection and catastrophe.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.
us3 min(s) read
Published 14:21 29 Dec 2022 GMT
A 10-year-old boy who has been accused of murdering his mom over a virtual reality headset has reportedly asked his family to protect his gadgets while he remains in custody.
The Milwaukee boy is being charged as an adult with first-degree reckless homicide after he allegedly shot his mother - 44-year-old Quiana Mann - in the face on November 21 when she refused to buy him a VR headset.
Per The Daily Mail, the boy had been in therapy for over a year to help with his mood and behavioral disorders. Part of the treatment involved limiting the use of screens and tech devices.
The boy's aunt, Rhonda Reid, also claimed he does not remember the shooting and changes the topic back to his devices when she speaks to him in custody, according to reports from WTMJ-TV.
Reports about the devastating incident allege that the boy shot his mother at around 07:00 AM after she told him that she would not buy him a new VR headset on Amazon. The boy is claimed to have told police that he had also been frustrated that his mom had woken him up at 06:00 AM.
Soon after allegedly shooting his mom, the boy reportedly ordered a new headset from Amazon using her card.
Earlier this week, the boy's family spoke to a local Milwaukee news station TMJ4 about the tragic incident, with reporters asking Reid if she believed her nephew was capable of hurting his mother.
"No, absolutely, not," she said, before adding: "He was upset about these [electronic] devices being taken away [...] When he calls, he's just like, 'make sure all my tablets and laptop and everything of mine is packaged.'"
When she speaks to her nephew from juvenile detention, she says he quickly changes the subject of the conversation if she tries to initiate a discussion on the shooting. Reid also added that her nephew is too young to understand the severity of the charges and what they could mean for him.
The boy's grandmother, however, has since stated that she is finding speaking to her grandson too difficult. Lueritha Mann said: "He needs to pay for what he's done," adding that she hopes she would be able to speak to him one day. "I hope I do one day, but right now no. He took something very precious from me," she said.
Earlier this month, the boy's attorney Angela Cunningham asked for a bail reduction from $50,000 to $100 - the amount of money in his piggy bank - the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
"We have spoken to him about his ability to post anything. He told us about piggy banks with savings that he had from gifts, from birthday gifts. And scavenging through cushions in the couch that he's been able to save up," she had told the outlet.
The request was denied by Judge Jane Carroll, who also imposed a travel restriction on the boy that would go into effect should he manage to post bail.
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