Jack Gruber-USA TODAY
An OpenAI publicist attempted to shut down an interview with Sam Altman when he was asked about a ChatGPT user's suicide
OpenAI apparently doesn’t want Sam Altman answering questions about the grave consequences of ChatGPT. A clip making the rounds on social media shows an OpenAI staffer interjecting to end an interview when Altman was asked about a user’s suicide.
In a clip of the interview posted on X, a reporter who was speaking with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman raised the 2025 death of Sophie Rottenberg, a 29-year-old who died by suicide after confiding in a ChatGPT-based “therapist” persona for months.
An OpenAI publicist attempted to shut down an interview with Sam Altman when he was asked about a ChatGPT user’s suicide
Before Altman could answer the Vanity Fair interviewer’s question, an offscreen OpenAI publicist can be heard saying there are “two minutes left” and attempting to redirect the interview toward “the future and what’s coming.”
Altman wasn’t even familiar with the story.
Vanity Fair reporter asks Sam Altman about Sophie Rottenberg, a 29-year old who committed suicide after conversations with ChatGPT.
The OpenAI PR person abruptly tries to end the interview. https://t.co/hcZYWUicbX
— Katie Miller (@KatieMiller) October 5, 2026
Mark Guiducci: “Do you know who Laura Reiley is?”
Sam Altman: “I don’t.”
Mark Guiducci: “She is a journalist. She wrote an essay in the ‘Times’ last year. Her daughter committed suicide after speaking to ChatGPT. ChatGPT did not tell her to kill herself—”
OpenAI Publicist: “Mark, We have two minutes left. I want to be respectful, but I’d like to move on and talk a little bit about the future and what’s coming.”
Watch the two-part interview: https://t.co/EEwVX703nr
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) October 5, 2026
Rottenberg’s case became public when her mother, Laura Reiley, wrote about it in an August 2025 New York Times essay, saying that Sophie had used a ChatGPT persona called “Harry” and wrote that it “helped her build a black box that made it harder for those around her to appreciate the severity of her distress.”
“ChatGPT essentially corroborates whatever you say, and doesn’t provide that,” Reily wrote. “In Sophie’s case, that was very dangerous.”
While OpenAI has said its protections include “surfacing crisis hotlines, guiding how our models respond to sensitive requests, and nudging for breaks during long sessions,” Sophie Reily reportedly told the chatbot not to refer her to outside resources.
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, call or text 988 in the U.S. to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.