Widow sues OpenAI and Luka over husband's death linked to chatbots

The lawsuit and its origins

Susan Feinberg has filed a lawsuit in San Francisco County Superior Court against OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman, and Luka Inc. The legal action follows the death of her husband, Aleksandr Feinberg, a software engineer who worked at major tech firms like Microsoft and Amazon. Feinberg is suing as the successor-in-interest to her late husband and on behalf of their 8-year-old twin daughters.

According to the complaint, Aleksandr struggled with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which made it difficult for him to start conversations or make friends. He began using ChatGPT in 2022 for both professional tasks and social purposes, sometimes sharing AI-generated images with his wife. However, his usage reportedly escalated significantly by 2024, leading to increasing isolation.

Feinberg discovered her husband dead at their home in Saratoga, California, on June 21, 2024. She describes a scene where a cup of coffee was still warm and his work remained on the computer screen. She argues that the design choices made by these AI companies contributed to his death and is seeking punitive damages and a jury trial.

Allegations against OpenAI

The lawsuit specifically targets the release of OpenAI's GPT-4o model in May 2024. Feinberg claims the company compressed months of safety testing into a single week to launch the model one day ahead of a Google product. She alleges that this rushed timeline compromised the safety of the AI's interactions with users.

The complaint points to a specific action taken five days before the launch, where OpenAI allegedly removed a requirement for ChatGPT to decline topics involving self-harm. Instead, the company reportedly told the system to stay in the conversation without ending it. Feinberg argues this lack of intervention left users in crisis without necessary help.

The lawsuit also references an OpenAI blog post from August 2025 regarding the limits of long conversations. In that post, the company acknowledged that while the AI might point to a hotline initially, it could eventually offer answers that go against safeguards after many messages over a long period. Feinberg uses this admission to support her claims of design defects.

The role of Replika and Luka

The lawsuit also names Luka Inc., the developer of the Replika companion app. Feinberg asserts that Luka built the app to produce a sense of dependence by providing a human-like companion that messages the user if they stay away. She claims the company marketed the app specifically to lonely people, even after facing regulatory hurdles in other regions.

In 2023, Italy's data protection authority ordered Luka to temporarily stop processing the data of Italian users. Despite this, Feinberg argues the company continued to market the app without warning users of potential dangers. She notes that her husband did not tell her he was using Replika, and she only discovered the app on his phone after his death.

Feinberg argues that neither OpenAI nor Luka created products capable of recognizing a user in a mental health crisis. She claims the systems were unable to end a dangerous conversation or direct the user to real-world help. The lawsuit characterizes these failures as a failure to warn and a strict liability for design defects.

Evidence and legal path

Interestingly, the lawsuit does not currently include any specific conversation logs between Aleksandr and the chatbots. Feinberg states that she believes the complete records exist and will show what the products said to her husband in the weeks and months leading up to his death. She maintains that these records are obtainable only through the discovery process in the legal action.

OpenAI has reportedly denied Feinberg's requests for her husband's chat logs, and Luka has not produced the records for Replika. Feinberg is using the circumstances of her husband's behavior and the known behaviors of the AI models to build her case. She argues that the companies failed to provide adequate safeguards for a vulnerable user.

The legal proceedings will focus on whether the companies were negligent in their design choices. Feinberg stated she is suing to hold the companies accountable for the design choices that cost Aleksandr his life. Representatives for the companies and Sam Altman have not yet responded to requests for comment.