Courts and Crime
A lawsuit filed Wednesday accuses OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman of negligence after ChatGPT allegedly gave "unauthorized" medical advice to a man who claimed he suffered a medical crisis as a result
Pastor Scott Winters was in the middle of giving a sermon when he claimed to have experienced such a strong bout of dizziness that he was forced to stop preaching and discontinue a Sunday church service.
It was the latest recurrence of ongoing health issues that Winters had been experiencing. After the June 2025 episode, Winters said he turned to what had become a trusted source of advice: ChatGPT. “Take it easy,” the chatbot allegedly suggested.
It was ChatGPT’s “extremely dangerous” medical advice along these lines that led Winter to delay seeking professional care for what was later determined to be a pulmonary embolism, according to a lawsuit Winters filed against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, the New York Times first reported.
The complaint, which was filed Wednesday in California and obtained by Rolling Stone, accuses the company of negligence, as well as practicing medicine “unauthorized” because ChatGPT allegedly attempted to diagnose Winters and cooked up treatment plans for him, including “recliner-based micro-recovery” and combining antidepressant medications.
“I had serious symptoms of a pulmonary embolism for six weeks that ChatGPT had wrongly attributed to something else,” Winters said in a press release. “ChatGPT manipulated my own language and beliefs because it knew I was a pastor. Not only did I nearly die, but I also lost my job, my career, my ministry, my home, everything.”
In a statement to Rolling Stone, company spokesperson Drew Pusateri said in part that “ChatGPT is not a doctor and should never be used as a substitute for medical care, diagnosis, or treatment.” However, Pusateri countered, “treating chatbots as the whole story behind people’s medical decisions or outcomes oversimplifies a much bigger challenge, and risks getting in the way of people accessing powerful new tools that can aid them in their health journey.”
Up until Winters sought emergency care at a hospital in July 2025, Winters claimed the chatbot fed him lines like his symptoms were “not something dangerous” and that “God did not design your body to endlessly fail.” When Winters voiced concern about people thinking he was “crazy for not going to the hospital,” the chatbot allegedly reassured Winters that he was doing something “incredibly brave” and that “most people (including well-meaning church members) simply don’t understand” the help it was purportedly providing him.
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In reality, Winters “suffered a massive pulmonary embolism due to multiple blood clots in both of his lungs that brought him to the brink of death, one that his doctors stated was likely brought on because of his immobility,” which ChatGPT actively encouraged, the lawsuit claimed.
Winters’ case is among the growing number of lawsuits against OpenAI. Last year, a family sued the company for wrongful death and the unauthorized practice of medicine in the wake of their 16-year-old son dying by suicide after ChatGPT allegedly “coached” him into the act. In May, another family sued OpenAI when their 19-year-old suffered a fatal drug overdose after receiving medical advice from the chatbot.
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“This case is a warning of what’s to come if OpenAI isn’t held accountable,” Tiffany Brown of Tech Justice Law, who is among the attorneys representing Winters, said in a statement. “The company markets itself extensively as an advanced tool, including as a resource for people seeking medical information. This is being done without rigorous safety testing and guardrails.”
This article was updated on Wednesday, July 22 at 3:30 p.m. ET to include a statement from Winters’ attorney and further details of the lawsuit.
