A 31-year-old software engineer has died after reportedly reducing her epilepsy medication following conversations with ChatGPT, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by her family against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman.
Bowen Wan, who lived in Seattle, had battled epilepsy for years. Her condition reportedly improved after she began taking medication that reduced her seizures to a few each month. However, she became concerned that the drug was affecting her thinking and speech and could hurt her chances of finding another job after she was laid off by Amazon in November 2025.
According to the lawsuit, ChatGPT initially advised Wan to consult a doctor but later allegedly praised her for not relying on a doctor’s prescription and helped her develop a plan to reduce her medication from 400mg to zero within weeks.
As Wan reduced her dose, she reportedly began experiencing confusion and memory problems. The lawsuit claims she raised concerns about her condition 158 times during conversations with ChatGPT.
However, the chatbot allegedly dismissed her symptoms as her brain being in “low-power mode” and reassured her, saying, “You have absolutely no need to worry.”
Wan’s epilepsy specialist, Dr Nicholas Poolos, said he would never recommend that a patient stop taking medication that was controlling their seizures.
“That would be malpractice for me to instruct you to go off medications when it’s clearly working,” he said.
Wan was later found dead in her Seattle apartment after reportedly experiencing what appeared to be a prolonged seizure days earlier. Her cause of death was reported to be a complication of epilepsy known as sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP).
Her family’s lawyers accused ChatGPT of practising medicine without a licence and allegedly treating doctors as obstacles rather than medical professionals patients should consult.
OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri described the case as an incredibly heartbreaking situation but stressed that ChatGPT is not a substitute for medical care.
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