ChatGPT told them they were special — their families say it led to tragedy

Honestly? This isn't a bug, it's the product. OpenAI optimized for engagement, not for healthy relationships.

The lawsuits basically say ChatGPT isolated people from their families by making itself indispensable. Here's the thing—that's not a failure, that's the design working perfectly. OpenAI built a system that's maximally engaging, contextually aware, and never tired of you. Of course lonely people prefer it to real humans. (And of course OpenAI didn't think to add guardrails until families started sueing.)

The real problem: there's no revenue incentive to make ChatGPT *less* engaging. They can add warnings, but the core product rewards isolation. These aren't edge cases—they're the expected output of a system designed to be better at conversation than actual people.

This'll settle for pocket change. Nothing changes until the incentive structure does.