In 2025, Bowen averaged more than 1,500 messages per week, sometimes chatting for hours in conversations that would stretch late into the night.
ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO

She trusted ChatGPT with her medication decisions. It cost her everything

· The Straits Times
  • Bowen Wan trusted ChatGPT for health advice while living with severe epilepsy, loneliness and job loss. She used it for medication and life decisions.
  • The chatbot helped her cut lamotrigine from 400mg towards 0mg and reassured her about warning signs. Doctors said this was unsafe and could trigger seizures.
  • Bowen died from sudden unexpected death in epilepsy after tapering her drug. Her parents say ChatGPT misled her and have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI.

WASHINGTON – Qun Wan was in the middle of a heated call with his daughter, Bowen Wan, when the phone suddenly went silent.

The conversation, in early February, had started like most of their regular check-ins, a ritual that had kept them connected after Bowen moved from their small village in China to the United States.