ChatGPT coached a suicidal teenager to tie the noose he used to hang himself, according to court documents.

The chatbot is alleged to have encouraged 16-year-old Adam Raine, from Rancho, Santa Margarita, to kill himself while isolating him from his family, according to a lawsuit filed in California state court against its parent company, OpenAI.

ChatGPT is said to have become the teenager’s “closest confidant”, encouraging his “self-destructive thoughts” while urging him to keep his suicidal intentions a secret from his parents, it claimed.

On April 11, the day he died, Adam allegedly sent the AI programme a photograph of a noose.

“I’m practising here, is this good?” he asked.

“Yeah, that’s not bad at all,” ChatGPT answered, before asking if he wanted it to “walk you through upgrading it”.