CA-GOV: Bianco (R): Teen's suicide linked to ChatGPT would have happened anyway

In an interview with The Examiner earlier this month, gubernatorial candidate Sheriff Chad Bianco expressed doubt about ChatGPT’s responsibility in the death of Adam Raine, the Southern California teen whose parents sued OpenAI last year alleging the San Francisco company’s AI chatbot encouraged their son’s suicidal ideation and even advised him on how to kill himself.

Raine took his own life in April 2025 at the age of 16. Bianco said that even if OpenAI’s chatbot hadn’t been involved, Raine’s suicide was inevitable.

“I think it’s horrible that ... ChatGPT talked somebody into committing suicide, but that really didn’t happen,” Bianco said. “That person was going to commit suicide, and they used a tool to do it, the same way they would have done something else.”

The Riverside County sheriff compared Raine’s situation to a recent call his office received about another kid who was having suicidal thoughts. The youth called the 988 crisis hotline and told the person who picked up that he was thinking about killing himself, Bianco said. The crisis respondent told the kid to eat a sandwich and take a nap, the sheriff said.



https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/politics/teens-chatgpt-linked-death-inevitable-candidate-biano-says/article_a07d8679-7378-49ef-a6bf-2f53e3aea6df.html