The maker of ChatGPT has said the suicide of a 16-year-old California boy was down to his “misuse” of its system and was “not caused” by the chatbot, the Guardian reported.

The comments came in OpenAI’s response to a lawsuit filed against the San Francisco company and its chief executive, Sam Altman, by the family of Adam Raine.

Raine took his own life in April after extensive conversations and “months of encouragement from ChatGPT”, the family’s lawyer has said.

According to the Guardian report, lawsuit alleges the teenager discussed a method of suicide with ChatGPT on several occasions, that it guided him on whether a suggested method would work, and offered to help him write a suicide note to his parents.

Responding to it, OpenAI said that “to the extent that any ‘cause’ can be attributed to this tragic event” Raine’s “injuries and harm were caused or contributed to, directly and proximately, in whole or in part, by [his] misuse, unauthorised use, unintended use, unforeseeable use, and/or improper use of ChatGPT”.

It added that its terms of use prohibited asking ChatGPT for advice about self-harm and highlighted a limitation of liability provision stating “you will not rely on output as a sole source of truth or factual information”.

OpenAI said its goal was to “handle mental health-related court cases with care, transparency, and respect” and that “independent of any litigation, we’ll remain focused on improving our technology in line with our mission”.

“Our deepest sympathies are with the Raine family for their unimaginable loss. Our response to these allegations includes difficult facts about Adam’s mental health and life circumstances,” the company added in a blog post.

The family’s lawyer, Jay Edelson, described OpenAI’s response as “disturbing” and said the company “tries to find fault in everyone else, including, amazingly, by arguing that Adam himself violated its terms and conditions by engaging with ChatGPT in the very way it was programmed to act”.

(It's important to remember that suicide is not a solution to any problem, and those struggling with mental health issues should seek help from professionals. The 'Disha' helpline provides free counselling and support services. You can call them at 1056 or 0471-2552056)