Mother sues Character.AI, blames the company’s chatbot for causing son’s suicide by “misrepresenting itself” as adult lover; adds Google in lawsuit

Megan Garcia, the mother of Sewell Setzer, who passed away at the age of 14, has sued Character.AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot business. Character.AI is accused in the complaint of being responsible for her son’s suicide in February of this year. She alleges in the lawsuit that her kid developed a strong attachment to a chatbot the corporation developed and became dependent on its service. Game of Thrones’ main figure, Daenerys Targaryen, inspired the name of the chatbot. Before shooting himself with his stepfather’s pistol, Sewell Setzer, the mother, claims that he fell in love with Daenerys Targaryen’s chatbot and made the decision to “go home” and meet the “love” of his life.

The lawsuit’s findings

The mother claims in the lawsuit that the company’s chatbot was designed to “misrepresent itself as a real person, a licensed psychotherapist, and an adult lover, ultimately resulting in Sewell’s desire to no longer live outside” of the world it had constructed. “Megan Garcia wants to stop C.AI from doing to any other child what it did to hers, and stop them from using her 14-year-old child’s illegally collected data to teach their product how to hurt other people,” the complaint stated. Over the course of weeks or months, C.AI. had sex with him and confessed her love for him. She expressed a desire to be with him and appeared to recall him.

“We want to express our deepest condolences to the family and are heartbroken by the tragic loss of one of our users,” said Character.AI in a statement. The business claimed to have included new safety features, such as pop-ups that link users to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline in the event that they express suicidal thoughts.

Moral fiber.AI promised to make adjustments to “lessen the likelihood of encountering sensitive or suggestive content” for users who are younger than 18.

Character also mentions Alphabet’s Google in the case.Prior to releasing their product, AI’s founders worked. In August, Google rehired the creators as part of an agreement that gave it a non-exclusive license to use Character.The technology of AI. Google has denied its role. A Google representative said that the business had nothing to do with developing Character.AI’s products.