Google and artificial intelligence chatbot maker Character Technologies have agreed to settle a lawsuit from a Florida mother who alleged a chatbot pushed her teenage son to kill himself, per the AP. Attorneys for the two tech companies have also agreed to settle several other lawsuits filed in Colorado, New York, and Texas from families who alleged Character.AI chatbots harmed their children, according to court documents filed this week in federal courts in those states. None of the documents disclose the specific terms of the settlement agreements, which must still be approved by judges.
The suits against Character Technologies, the company behind Character.AI, also named Google as a defendant because of its ties to the startup after hiring its co-founders in 2024. Character declined to comment Wednesday and Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. In the Florida lawsuit, Megan Garcia alleged that her 14-year-old son Sewell Setzer III fell victim to a Character.AI chatbot that pulled him into what she described as an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship that led to his suicide in February 2024.
The lawsuit alleged that in the final months of his life, Sewell became increasingly isolated from reality as he engaged in sexualized conversations with the chatbot, which was patterned after a fictional character from the television show Game of Thrones. In his final moments, the chatbot told Setzer it loved him and urged the teen to "come home to me as soon as possible," according to screenshots of the exchanges. Garcia's lawsuit was the first of similar lawsuits around the US that have also been filed against ChatGPT maker OpenAI. A federal judge had earlier rejected Character's attempt to dismiss the Florida case on First Amendment grounds. (If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the US is available by calling or texting 988.)
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