Parents of Amazon software engineer Bowen Wan, who died in February 2026, have sued OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT encouraged her to reduce epilepsy medication without medical supervision. The lawsuit says the chatbot also advised her to hide changes from doctors.

The parents of an Amazon software engineer who had epilepsy have sued OpenAI, alleging that ChatGPT encouraged their daughter to cut back her seizure medication without medical supervision and to hide the changes from her doctors. Bowen Wan, 31, died in February 2026. Her parents, Qun Wan and Meiqin Xu, say the chatbot, running on the GPT-4o model, dismissed her repeated worries about confusion, memory gaps and unusual episodes as she lowered her dose. The case adds to a growing number of lawsuits asking whether AI companies have done enough to protect users from harmful chatbot responses, particularly when people turn to them for medical guidance.

The New York Times, which reviewed more than 270,000 messages between Wan and ChatGPT, reported that the chatbot had been helping her work around her doctors' advice well before her death. The allegations are the family's and have not been tested in court.

The alleged advice

Wan began discussing medication changes with ChatGPT in May 2025, worried that her medication might affect her ability to work, according to the lawsuit. In November 2025, Amazon told her she would be laid off, and her US work authorisation was due to end in mid-February. In January 2026, she asked ChatGPT about reducing her daily dose of lamotrigine, a drug that had cut her seizures to a few a month. The suit alleges the chatbot drew up schedules to bring the dose down to zero within weeks.