People walk next to a Google logo during a trade fair in Hannover Messe, in Hanover, Germany, April 22, 2024.FLORIDA — A mother in Florida has sued artificial intelligence chatbot startup Character.AI accusing it of causing her 14-year-old son's suicide in February, saying he became addicted to the company's service and deeply attached to a chatbot it created.
The lawsuit also said he expressed thoughts of suicide to the chatbot, which the chatbot repeatedly brought up again. The lawsuit also targets Alphabet's Google, where Character.AI's founders worked before launching their product. Google re-hired the founders in August as part of a deal granting it a non-exclusive licence to Character.AI's technology.
Sewell became attached to "Daenerys", a chatbot character based on a character in "Game of Thrones." It told Sewell that "she" loved him and engaged in sexual conversations with him, according to the lawsuit.