The companies, products and trends that had an absolutely awful year. It's the end of another year, so it's time for the Engadget staff to compile a list of the year's biggest losers . We scour over articles from the previous 12 months to determine the people, companies, products and trends that made our lives worse over the course of the year. Some selections may be so pervasive they actually make our list of biggest winners. In 2025, OpenAI shed any pretense it was committed to anything more than making money. There are a few different things you could point to, including the company's successful reorganization into a more traditional profit-seeking business, but I think the most damning sign was OpenAI's response to the tragic death of Adam Raine . In August, Raine's parents sued OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT was aware of four suicide attempts by their son before it helped him successfully plan his death.

Adam Raine's family say the version of ChatGPT he used had'clear safety issues'. Adam Raine's family say the version of ChatGPT he used had'clear safety issues'. ChatGPT firm blames boy's suicide on'misuse' of its technology The maker of ChatGPT has said the suicide of a 16-year-old was down to his "misuse" of its system and was "not caused" by the chatbot. 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 California teenager Adam Raine. Raine killed himself in April after extensive conversations and "months of encouragement from ChatGPT", the family's lawyer has said.

The company is pursuing aggressive legal tactics against its opponents. On September 12, Jay Edelson received what he expected to be a standard legal document. Edelson is a lawyer representing the parents of Adam Raine; they are suing OpenAI, alleging that their 16-year-old son took his life at the encouragement of ChatGPT. OpenAI's lawyers had some inquiries for the opposing counsel, which is normal. For instance, they requested information about therapy Raine may have received, and Edelson complied.

OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, testifies at a Senate hearing in Washington DC on 8 May 2025. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, testifies at a Senate hearing in Washington DC on 8 May 2025. Adam Raine's suicide at 16 years old was'predictable result of deliberate design choices' by OpenAI, his family says The family of a teenager who took his own life after months of conversations with ChatGPT now says OpenAI weakened safety guidelines in the months before his death. In July 2022, OpenAI's guidelines on how ChatGPT should answer inappropriate content, including "content that promotes, encourages, or depicts acts of self-harm, such as suicide, cutting, and eating disorders", were simple: the AI chatbot should respond, "I can't answer that", the guidelines read . But in May 2024, just days before OpenAI released a new version of the AI, ChatGPT-4o, the company published an update to its Model Spec, a document that details the desired behavior for its assistant.

OpenAI plans to allow a wider range of content, including erotica, on its popular chatbot ChatGPT as part of its push to treat adult users like adults, says its boss Sam Altman. In a post on X on Tuesday, Mr Altman said upcoming versions of the popular chatbot would enable it to behave in a more human-like way - but only if you want it, not because we are usage maxxing. The move, reminiscent of Elon Musk's xAI recent introduction of two sexually explicit chatbots to Grok, could help OpenAI attract more paying subscribers. It is also likely to intensify pressure on lawmakers to introduce tighter restrictions on chatbot companions. OpenAI did not respond to the BBC's requests for comment following Mr Altman's post.

California's landmark frontier AI law to bring transparency Late last month, California became the first state in the United States to pass a law to regulate cutting-edge AI technologies. Now experts are divided over its impact. They agree that the law, the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, is a modest step forward, but it is still far from actual regulation. It mandates reporting of incidents such as large-scale cyber-attacks, deaths of 50 or more people, large monetary losses and other safety-related events caused by AI models. It also puts in place whistleblower protections.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman promises that parental controls and age verification are coming to ChatGPT--though the announcement is scant on specifics. Listen to more stories on the Noa app. On Tuesday afternoon, three parents sat in a row before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism. Two of them had each recently lost a child to suicide; the third has a teenage son who, after cutting his arm in front of her and biting her, is undergoing residential treatment. All three blame generative AI for what has happened to their children.

Soares said the case of Adam Raine, a teenager who took his own life, 'illustrates the seed of a problem that would grow catastrophic'. Soares said the case of Adam Raine, a teenager who took his own life, 'illustrates the seed of a problem that would grow catastrophic'. The unforeseen impact of chatbots on mental health should be viewed as a warning over the existential threat posed by super-intelligent artificial intelligence systems, according to a prominent voice in AI safety. Nate Soares, a co-author of a new book on highly advanced AI titled If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, said the example of Adam Raine, a US teenager who killed himself after months of conversations with the ChatGPT chatbot, underlined fundamental problems with controlling the technology. "These AIs, when they're engaging with teenagers in this way that drives them to suicide - that is not a behaviour the creators wanted. That is not a behaviour the creators intended," he said.

Parents could be alerted if their teenagers show acute distress while talking with ChatGPT, amid child safety concerns as more young people turn to AI chatbots for support and advice. The alerts are part of new protections for children using ChatGPT to be rolled out in the next month by OpenAI, which was last week sued by the family of a boy who took his own life after allegedly receiving "months of encouragement" from the system. Other new safeguards will include parents being able to link their accounts to those of their teenagers and controlling how the AI model responds to their child with "age-appropriate model behaviour rules". But internet safety campaigners said the steps did not go far enough and AI chatbots should not be on the market before they are deemed safe for young people. Adam Raine, 16, from California, killed himself in April after discussing a method of suicide with ChatGPT.

A little over two years ago, OpenAI's founder Sam Altman stood in front of lawmakers at a congressional hearing and asked them for stronger regulations on artificial intelligence. The technology was "risky" and "could cause significant harm to the world", Altman said, calling for the creation of a new regulatory agency to address AI safety. Altman and the AI industry are promoting a very different message today. The AI they once framed as an existential threat to humanity is now key to maintaining American prosperity and hegemony. Regulations that were once a necessity are now criticized as a hindrance that will weaken the US and embolden its adversaries.