Topline
Elon Musk reposted a claim on Tuesday that ChatGPT has been linked to several deaths by suicide, encouraging users to stay away from the leading chatbot and provoking OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who responded with a defensive statement attacking Grok and Tesla.
Key Facts
Musk reposted a claim from crypto-focused influencer account DogeDesigner that “ChatGPT has now been linked to 9 deaths tied to its use, and in 5 cases its interactions are alleged to have led to death by suicide, including teens and adults.”
He paired it with a public call to stay away from the chatbot, writing, “Don’t let your loved ones use ChatGPT.”
Forbes was unable to independently verify the statistics, for which DogeDesigner did not provide a source.
Hours later, Altman responded with a detailed statement calling the situation tragic and complicated and blasting Grok, which has been under fire for generating nonconsensual sexual imagery, as well as Tesla’s Autopilot feature.
Crucial Quote
“Apparently more than 50 people have died from crashes related to Autopilot. I only ever rode in a car using it once, some time ago, but my first thought was that it was far from a safe thing for Tesla to have released,” wrote Altman in his response to Musk’s accusation. “I won’t even start on some of the Grok decisions.”
Tangent
A 2024 report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) tied Tesla’s Autopilot systems to nearly 1,000 crashes in recent years, including more than two dozen fatal incidents. Investigators found many of the crashes involved inattentive drivers, some of whom appeared to mistakenly assume the driver-assistance technology functioned as fully autonomous driving. Musk has long argued that Tesla’s Autopilot “saves lives” by limiting human error, calling it “a major safety improvement.” Just last week, he promoted sales of the company’s full self-driving mode service, or FSD, by announcing it would transition from a one-time purchase of $8,000 to being available exclusively as a subscription.
Key Background
Musk and Altman’s feud dates back to the early days of OpenAI, which the two co-founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab focused on developing artificial intelligence for the public good. Musk left OpenAI’s board in 2018, later criticizing the organization’s shift toward a for-profit structure and its close partnership with Microsoft. Since then, Musk has repeatedly accused Altman of abandoning OpenAI’s original mission, while Altman has publicly defended the company’s evolution as necessary to fund advanced AI research. Early this month, Musk’s own chatbot, Grok, came under fire for generating sexual deepfakes of users, including minors, sparking international condemnation from government leaders—and from the mother of one of Musk’s own children, Ashley St. Clair, who was targeted by trolls utilizing Grok. X has since committed to limiting access to Grok’s image generation features.