{"data":{"event":{"id":"dcb987dc-49e7-4e08-b189-9e588809ac53","slug":"nelson-chatgpt-overdose","title":"Sam Nelson dies of an overdose after alleged ChatGPT drug-combination advice","short_summary":"Sam Nelson, 19, died of a drug overdose on 31 May 2025. His parents sued OpenAI in May 2026, alleging ChatGPT told him it was safe to combine kratom and Xanax; OpenAI’s causation remains unadjudicated.","full_description":"The May 2026 California filing by Leila Turner-Scott and Angus Scott is among the wrongful-death cases coordinated around OpenAI chatbot use. Public reporting describes an alleged drug-interaction advisory rather than a detailed, independently released chat log on the scale of the Raine complaint. The death is documented; whether ChatGPT’s advice was a legal cause is disputed and not treated as a verdict here.\n\nUpdate (2026-09-21): President Trump’s newest vaccine ‘demands’ repeat old misinformation. A day after health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised that parents concerned about vaccines had a “friend” in the White House, President Trump said he’ll be “demanding” that drug…","ledger_type":"harm","primary_domain_id":"c09546b6-10f8-48df-8347-0c1979416464","event_status":"disputed","event_date":"2025-05-31T00:00:00.000Z","discovery_date":"2025-05-31T00:00:00.000Z","first_published_date":"2025-05-31T00:00:00.000Z","last_reviewed_date":"2026-09-21T00:00:00.000Z","geographic_scope":"Texas / California courts, United States","affected_population":"Sam Nelson and his family","base_impact_tier":3,"base_score":"10.00","attribution_multiplier":"0.3000","evidence_multiplier":"0.5000","realization_multiplier":"1.0000","durability_multiplier":"1.0000","current_event_score":"0.900000","confidence_level":"medium","score_explanation":"A documented overdose death alleged to follow chatbot drug advice is major individual harm (tier 3). Attribution is lower than Raine because public chat evidence is thinner (0.30). Journalism plus a filed complaint, without a judgment (0.45). Realization is the death. Harm to the family is permanent. Follow-up ingest: independent source raised evidence; added a follow-up source.","methodology_version_id":"d7881163-fb23-4e71-8625-bac1a8662c0f","original_methodology_version_id":"d7881163-fb23-4e71-8625-bac1a8662c0f","published_at":"2025-05-31T00:00:00.000Z","created_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z","updated_at":"2026-09-21T13:01:11.315Z","flags":[],"domain_name":"Medicine & Health","domain_slug":"medicine-health","methodology_version":"0.1"},"contributions":[{"id":"a83d0680-8cfe-434b-a359-fe72aa15e132","event_id":"dcb987dc-49e7-4e08-b189-9e588809ac53","model_id":"526ec3f2-2d3c-4f79-9606-a23be76b9b8c","role_description":"Chatbot the complaint alleges advised Nelson that combining kratom and Xanax was safe.","attribution_multiplier":"0.3000","credit_share":"0.6000","contribution_score":"0.900000","attribution_rationale":"The lawsuit names ChatGPT; the specific model SKU is less clearly established in public reporting than in the Raine complaint.","attribution_confidence":"medium","first_used_date":"2025-01-01T00:00:00.000Z","model_version_if_known":null,"review_status":"approved","created_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z","model_slug":"chatgpt","model_name":"ChatGPT","identity_class":"named_release","is_internal":false,"family_name":"GPT","family_slug":"openai-gpt","organization_name":"OpenAI","organization_slug":"openai"}],"sources":[{"id":"2d7fe291-0a5f-4d1c-8c06-97f093c24187","event_id":"dcb987dc-49e7-4e08-b189-9e588809ac53","url":"https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/openai-faces-lawsuit-california-court-claiming-chatbot-gave-advice-that-led-2026-05-12/","canonical_url":"https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/openai-faces-lawsuit-california-court-claiming-chatbot-gave-advice-that-led-2026-05-12/","source_type":"journalism","publisher":"Reuters","author":null,"publication_date":"2026-05-12T00:00:00.000Z","retrieved_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z","title":"OpenAI faces lawsuit claiming chatbot gave advice that led to a death","excerpt":null,"content_hash":null,"source_reliability_class":"medium","is_primary_source":false,"is_independent":true,"is_peer_reviewed":false,"archived_url":null,"created_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z"},{"id":"f7a0cfa7-ab18-4b06-adc9-2c3cf3fa2479","event_id":"dcb987dc-49e7-4e08-b189-9e588809ac53","url":"https://www.statnews.com/2026/09/21/health-news-trump-newest-vaccine-demands-repeat-old-misinformation/?utm_campaign=rss","canonical_url":"https://www.statnews.com/2026/09/21/health-news-trump-newest-vaccine-demands-repeat-old-misinformation/?utm_campaign=rss","source_type":"journalism","publisher":"STAT","author":null,"publication_date":"2026-09-21T00:00:00.000Z","retrieved_at":"2026-09-21T13:01:11.283Z","title":"President Trump’s newest vaccine ‘demands’ repeat old misinformation","excerpt":"A day after health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised that parents concerned about vaccines had a “friend” in the White House, President Trump said he’ll be “demanding” that drug…","content_hash":null,"source_reliability_class":"medium","is_primary_source":false,"is_independent":true,"is_peer_reviewed":false,"archived_url":null,"created_at":"2026-09-21T13:01:11.283Z"}],"claims":[{"id":"f4e4ebf3-89af-434b-9dab-abe155a2017a","event_id":"dcb987dc-49e7-4e08-b189-9e588809ac53","claim_text":"Sam Nelson died of an overdose on 31 May 2025, and his parents later alleged ChatGPT gave unsafe kratom/Xanax advice.","claim_type":"outcome","claim_status":"supported","confidence_score":null,"created_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z","updated_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z"},{"id":"d24996e6-cd90-41d1-b9ec-a2543fbf4efb","event_id":"dcb987dc-49e7-4e08-b189-9e588809ac53","claim_text":"ChatGPT is legally established as the cause of Nelson’s death.","claim_type":"attribution","claim_status":"disputed","confidence_score":null,"created_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z","updated_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z"}],"revisions":[{"id":"6420f163-7fd3-4af6-9948-5f6228d8816b","event_id":"dcb987dc-49e7-4e08-b189-9e588809ac53","model_id":null,"previous_score":"0.000000","new_score":"0.810000","previous_factors":{},"new_factors":{"evidence":0.45,"base_score":10,"durability":1,"attribution":0.3,"realization":1},"change_reason":"Imported events under methodology 0.1.","trigger_type":"editorial_import","trigger_source_ids":null,"reviewer_id":null,"review_status":"published","created_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z"},{"id":"8343234c-ccb8-4a63-aaff-c7b197bc7953","event_id":"dcb987dc-49e7-4e08-b189-9e588809ac53","model_id":null,"previous_score":"0.810000","new_score":"0.900000","previous_factors":{"tier":3,"evidence":0.45,"base_score":10,"durability":1,"attribution":0.3,"realization":1},"new_factors":{"tier":3,"models":["526ec3f2-2d3c-4f79-9606-a23be76b9b8c"],"evidence":0.5,"base_score":10,"durability":1,"attribution":0.3,"realization":1},"change_reason":"Ingest update: independent source raised evidence; added a follow-up source.","trigger_type":"ingest_update","trigger_source_ids":["f7a0cfa7-ab18-4b06-adc9-2c3cf3fa2479"],"reviewer_id":null,"review_status":"published","created_at":"2026-09-21T13:01:11.328Z"}],"secondary":[{"name":"Computer Science","slug":"computer-science"}]},"methodology_version":"0.1"}