Family of victim in Darron Lee murder case plans to pursue potential claim against ChatGPT

The murder case against former NFL first-round draft pick Darron Lee includes evidence that he used ChatGPT for advice on how to deal with an “unresponsive” person.

Via Madison Sims of Local3News.com, the family of the victim in the case, Gabriella Perpétuo, plans to pursue accountability from ChatGPT for facilitating those efforts.

“The defendant in this case engaged ChatGPT to cover up a crime,” attorney C. Mark Warren told Sims. “We feel like that it’s important that ChatGPT and all AI platforms have guardrails in place where they can engage, but not engage without consequences.”

There’s an inherent ready-fire-aim quality to AI, with millions of users essentially serving as the beta testers. Companies like OpenAI are using the real-time experiences of everyone using the product to fine-tune it.

That process will give rise to a wide range of problems. OpenAI already faces litigation alleging that ChatGPT served as a “suicide coach.” And there’s more than one such case.

As to Lee, if Perpétuo was unresponsive but still alive, Lee’s decision to use ChatGPT for advice on how to handle the situation — and ChatGPT’s willingness to comply with the prompt — may have squandered the last opportunity to save her.

Especially if the response from ChatGPT was anything other than, “Call 911 right now.”

When a life is lost, justice comes in various forms. Lee faces first-degree murder charges. The family has filed a $50 million wrongful-death lawsuit against him. ChatGPT and OpenAI may have liability, too.

The AI revolution will give rise to plenty of legal questions. The responsibility of such companies to program their products to act properly in such situations will be determined either through regulation or litigation.

For most new industries, there’s a Wild West phase that plays out before the legislative and/or regulatory components of state and/or federal government can catch up. That’s where the civil justice system becomes critical to the creation of clear standards through the application of settled principles (primarily, negligence) aimed at forcing these companies to treat those who use their products with an adequate amount of care and respect.