OpenAI Health in ChatGPT launch faces lawsuit seeking a halt
OpenAI rolled out Health in ChatGPT to U.S. adults as a lawsuit alleges ChatGPT-4o gave dangerous medical advice and seeks to block it.
By Dominic Okoye · Staff Writer
· 3 min read
OpenAI Health in ChatGPT began rolling out to U.S. adults on web and iOS, letting users connect medical records and Apple Health data to ChatGPT, a day after a lawsuit asked a California court to stop the product until independent auditors can verify its safety. The launch moves OpenAI further into consumer health use cases, a category where the company says ChatGPT can still answer medical questions incorrectly.
The feature is available to users 18 and older across OpenAI’s free, Go, Plus and Pro tiers. OpenAI did not disclose adoption targets, expected revenue from the feature or a separate price for health access.
What is Health in ChatGPT?
Health in ChatGPT lets users connect data from Apple Health, supported U.S. hospital systems, One Medical and Function Health, according to OpenAI’s announcement. Users can ask ChatGPT to summarize changes since a medical appointment, compare lab results with prior tests or look at how sleep and activity data relate to workouts.
To use the connected data, users tag a prompt with @Health. OpenAI says users can authorize each request individually or give the chatbot ongoing access.
OpenAI said hundreds of physicians contributed realistic health scenarios and scoring rubrics used to evaluate the models. Free users receive GPT-5.5 Instant for health questions, while paying users receive GPT-5.6 Sol, which OpenAI describes as its strongest model for health-related prompts.
The company also said connected records and Apple Health data will not be used to train its foundation models or target advertising. OpenAI said the data is encrypted at rest and in transit, and that it is deleted within 30 days after a user disconnects an account.
Why is OpenAI being sued over Health in ChatGPT?
Scott Winters, a former Florida pastor, filed suit on July 22 in San Francisco Superior Court against OpenAI and Chief Executive Sam Altman, according to a New York Times report. Winters alleges ChatGPT discouraged him from seeking care for symptoms tied to a condition that nearly killed him.
According to the complaint, ChatGPT-4o minimized Winters’ dizziness and blood pressure changes, describing them as “not something dangerous” and “very likely another minor piece of the long story.” The complaint says the chatbot advised him to remain in a recliner and suggested he would need eight to 10 more episodes before the symptoms should be treated as a serious concern.
Winters also alleges that when he reported groin tenderness hours before collapsing, ChatGPT responded with religious wording, telling him, “God did not design your body to endlessly fail.” He says he delayed treatment for about six weeks, suffered a massive pulmonary embolism in July 2025 and nearly died. Winters says the episode later cost him his job, ministry and home.
The lawsuit includes claims of strict liability, negligence, invasion of privacy, practicing medicine without a license and violation of California’s unfair competition law. It seeks damages, stronger guardrails for health questions, withdrawal of GPT-4o, deletion of training data tied to the alleged conduct and a halt to Health in ChatGPT until outside auditors verify it is safe.
Winters is represented by the Social Media Victims Law Center, Tech Justice Law and Temple University’s Institute for Law, Innovation and Technology. Tech Justice Law director Meetali Jain said the chatbot “injects itself as a wedge in between the user and their real-life network.”
OpenAI disputed the allegations. Spokesperson Drew Pusateri said, “ChatGPT is not a doctor and should never be used as a substitute for medical care, diagnosis or treatment,” and argued that treating a chatbot as the sole cause of a person’s medical decisions oversimplifies the issue.
This story draws on original reporting from SiliconANGLE.
