Amazon Reportedly Sold Products and Recommended Frequently Bought Together Items That Aid Suicide Attempts

Laws that address this harm

Policy angle: Classified under Human-Computer Interaction (Overreliance and unsafe use) in the MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy; 5 recorded instruments address this use case.

• India DPDP Act India · Partially applicable · binding
• Law on Artificial Intelligence (2025) Kazakhstan · Adopted · binding
• Law No. 132/2025 on artificial intelligence Italy · In force · binding
• EU AI Act European Union · Partially applicable · binding
• Texas Responsible AI Governance Act (TRAIGA) Texas (United States) · In force · binding

Matched from the record's risk domain and country to the instruments recorded here. A reviewer can correct the match in the repository (data/external/incident_overrides.yaml).

News reports (2)

Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.

1. 4 Feb 2022
   Amazon's algorithm suggests products for suicide attempts

   nytimes.com · Megan Twohey, Gabriel J.X. Dance
2. 29 Sep 2022
   Complaint For Civil Penalties and Demand for a Jury Trial

   cdn.arstechnica.net · C. A. Goldberg PLLC

Who was involved

Alleged deployer

Amazon

Alleged developer

Amazon

Alleged harmed party

People Attempting Suicides

Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)

Risk domain

Human-Computer Interaction

Risk subdomain

5.1 Overreliance and unsafe use

Causal entity

AI

Intent

Unintentional

Timing

Post-deployment

Harm level

none

Sectors

wholesale and retail trade

Countries

—

Risk entries describing this failure mode

Entries from the MIT AI Risk Repository coded to subdomain 5.1.

• Addiction

  "Addiction - Emotional or material dependence on technology or a technology system."

  A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

• Alienation/isolation

  "Alienation/isolation - An individual’s or group’s feeling of lack of connection with those around as a result of technology use or misuse."

  A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

• Overreliance

  "Over-reliance - Unfettered and/or obsessive belief in the accuracy or other quality of a technology system, resulting in addiction, anxiety, introversion, sentience, complacency, lack of critical thinking and other actu...

  A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

• Economic instability

  "Economic instability - Uncontrolled fluctuations impacting the financial system, or parts thereof, due to the use or misuse of a technology system, or set of systems."

  A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

• Social manipulation in elderly- and child-care

  " the use of advanced AI for elderly- and child-care are subject to risk of psychological manipulation and misjudgment "

  The Rise of Artificial Intelligence - Future Outlooks and Emerging Risks (Allianz2018)

• Healthcare

  "the use of advanced AI for elderly- and child-care are subject to risk of psychological manipulation and misjudgment (see page 17). In addition, concerns about patients’ privacy when AI uses medical records to research...

  The Rise of Artificial Intelligence - Future Outlooks and Emerging Risks (Allianz2018)

• Alteration of social relationships may induce psychological distress

  The Rise of Artificial Intelligence - Future Outlooks and Emerging Risks (Allianz2018)

• Inconsistent Performance across and within Domains

  "Estimating true capabilities of an LLM is a difficult task (c.f. Section 3.3), especially for naive users unfamiliar with the brittle nature of machine learning technologies. Exaggeration of model capabilities by the de...

  Foundational Challenges in Assuring Alignment and Safety of Large Language Models (Anwar2024)

Incidents in the same risk subdomain

• 2 Nov 2025Lawsuit Alleged ChatGPT (GPT-4o) Encouraged Colorado Man's Suicide After Prolonged 'AI Companion' Chats
• 27 Oct 2025Large-Scale Mental Health Crises Allegedly Associated with ChatGPT Interactions
• 29 Sep 2025Google Gemini Reportedly Reinforced Delusions, Allegedly Contributing to Florida User's Near-Harm Episode and Suicide
• 18 Aug 2025Family Reportedly Discovers ChatGPT Logs Detailing Suicidal Ideation Prior to Daughter's Death
• 14 Aug 2025Purported AI Monitoring Software Reportedly Flags Unsent Joke Threat, Leading to Arizona Student Suspension
• 5 Aug 2025ChatGPT Allegedly Reinforced Delusions Before Greenwich, Connecticut Murder-Suicide

Other incidents involving Amazon

• 8 Apr 2023Amazon Algorithmic Pricing Allegedly Hiked up Price of Reference Book to Millions
• 26 Dec 2021Alexa Recommended Dangerous TikTok Challenge to Ten-Year-Old Girl
• 20 Sep 2021Amazon's AI Cameras Incorrectly Penalized Delivery Drivers for Mistakes They Did Not Make
• 15 Mar 2021Amazon's Monitoring System Allegedly Pushed Delivery Drivers to Prioritize Speed over Safety, Leading to Crash
• 2 Mar 2021Amazon Allegedly Forced Deployment of AI-Powered Cameras on Delivery Drivers
• 21 Jan 2021Amazon’s Search and Recommendation Algorithms Found by Auditors to Have Boosted Products That Contained Vaccine Misinformation