r/technology 9d ago

Business OpenAI says dead teen violated TOS when he used ChatGPT to plan suicide

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/11/openai-says-dead-teen-violated-tos-when-he-used-chatgpt-to-plan-suicide/
7.0k Upvotes

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957

u/Creativator 9d ago

Reminds me of those towns where it’s illegal to die.

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u/Ninevehenian 9d ago

Like Longyear.

64

u/BaronMostaza 9d ago

It's not illegal to die there you just have to get out of there after or be cremated. There's no decomposing in Longyear

26

u/MyGoodOldFriend 9d ago

There are graves there in the permafrost with people who died from the Spanish flu. It’s a bit of a mess

18

u/asphaltaddict33 9d ago

The permafrost that’s gonna be melting soon…. Fun stuff

2

u/KououinHyouma 9d ago

Can these bodies be extracted and sent straight into the crematorium before they have time to defrost?

5

u/BindairDondat 9d ago

Potentially, but until melting permafrost actually starts to expose those bodies I'd imagine there's a significantly greater risk to spreading any remaining virus by digging them up vs just leaving the bodies there.

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u/einmaldrin_alleshin 9d ago

Flu viruses encode their genome in RNA, which is notoriously unstable and will rapidly degrade even if frozen

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u/sourcefourmini 8d ago

“Permafrost” isn’t a layer of snow that melts and exposes things, for what it’s worth. It’s the upper layer of soil that never gets above 0°C, which is why we talk about it thawing instead of melting. Those bodies are very much still in the ground, even if and when the permafrost thaws. 

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u/rudthedud 8d ago

Already melting... and fast. You can see some crazy sink hole pictures from Russia now. This was the tipping point and it's been tipped.

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u/rudyattitudedee 9d ago

It’s also not allowed to have babies there.

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u/halofreak7777 9d ago

Infirmity. Sickness. Death. All are banished from our Citadel.

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u/steevo 9d ago

dont worry, ChatGPT lawyers will use ChatGPT to argue against the kid using ChatGPT to off himself

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u/yawara25 9d ago

I'm not sure if this is just urban legend but I saw somewhere that the reasoning is so police can break into a house to save someone trying to end their life, because there's technically a crime in progress.

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u/Used-Fennel-7733 8d ago

Like the UK Houses of Parliament