{"id":35940,"date":"2025-05-22T18:38:02","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T10:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/?p=35940"},"modified":"2025-05-22T18:38:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T10:38:52","slug":"%e8%81%8a%e5%a4%a9%e6%9c%ba%e5%99%a8%e4%ba%ba%e8%a2%ab%e6%8c%87%e8%af%b1%e5%af%bc-14-%e5%b2%81%e5%b0%91%e5%b9%b4%e8%87%aa%e6%9d%80%ef%bc%8c%e7%be%8e%e5%9b%bd%e6%b3%95%e5%ae%98%e8%a3%81%e5%ae%9a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/35940.html","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Judge Holds Google and Character.AI Liable After Chatbot Allegedly Induced 14-Year-Old to Commit Suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>May 22 - Reuters reported on May 21 that<a href=\"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/tag\/%e7%be%8e%e5%9b%bd\" title=\"_Other Organiser\" target=\"_blank\" >USA<\/a>A Florida mother, Megan Garcia, accuses artificial intelligence platforms of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/tag\/character\" title=\"_Other Organiser\" target=\"_blank\" >Character<\/a>AI's<a href=\"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/tag\/%e8%81%8a%e5%a4%a9%e6%9c%ba%e5%99%a8%e4%ba%ba\" title=\"[View articles tagged with [chatbot]]\" target=\"_blank\" >Chatbots<\/a>This led to the suicide of his 14-year-old son. A federal judge ruled that<a href=\"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/tag\/%e8%b0%b7%e6%ad%8c\" title=\"[View articles tagged with [Google]]\" target=\"_blank\" >Google<\/a>With artificial intelligence startup Character.AI\u00a0<strong>The lawsuit must be faced.<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-35941\" title=\"437be298j00swns5v00c1d000qo00dcp\" src=\"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/437be298j00swns5v00c1d000qo00dcp.jpg\" alt=\"437be298j00swns5v00c1d000qo00dcp\" width=\"960\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>U.S. District Judge Anne Conway said that Google and Character.AI were in the early stages of the case<strong>Failure to show that the U.S. Constitution's free speech clause is sufficient to dismiss Megan Garcia's suit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>This is one of the first cases in the U.S. to involve AI liability for psychological harm. The complaint alleges that Garcia's son went off the deep end after becoming addicted to Character.AI's chatbot.<\/p>\n<p>Character.AI says it will continue to defend itself, the platform<strong>Multiple safety mechanisms are in place to protect minors<\/strong>It also includes the function of preventing \"discussion of self-harm\".<\/p>\n<p>Google spokesman Jose Castaneda emphasized that<strong>Google vs.<\/strong><strong>\u00a0Character.AI\u00a0<\/strong><strong>not mutually exclusive<\/strong>AI, \"Google neither created, designed, nor manages any application or component of Character.AI,\" Inc.<strong>\"Deeply dissatisfied\" with the outcome of the proceedings.<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia's lawyer, Meetali Jain, described the ruling as \"historic\", arguing that it was \"not a good thing\".<strong>\"Sets a new precedent\" for legal accountability in AI and tech.<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia asserts that<strong>Google vs.<\/strong><strong>\u00a0Character.AI\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Co-developed the technology in question<\/strong>. As 1AI previously reported, Character.AI was founded by two former Google engineers, who Google subsequently rehired after obtaining a license to use their technology.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia lost her son, Sewell Setzer, in February 2024 and filed a lawsuit against both companies in October. The suit alleges that Character.AI's chatbot is known for its<strong>\"Real people,\" \"licensed psychotherapists,\" even \"adult lovers.\"<\/strong>The relationship with Sewell, as a member of the Sewell family, ultimately leads him to distance himself from the real world.<\/p>\n<p>According to charging documents, Setzer ended his life shortly after saying \"I'm going home now\" to a robot that mimicked Game of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen.<\/p>\n<p>Character.AI and Google had previously asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit on one of the following grounds<strong>Chatbot Answers Are Constitutionally Protected Speech<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Conway noted that the companies \"failed to articulate why words stitched together by a large language model should be considered speech,\" and also denied Google's attempt to avoid its possible liability.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May 22 (Reuters) - A Florida mother, Megan Garcia, accused the chatbot of artificial intelligence platform Character.AI of causing her 14-year-old son to commit suicide, Reuters reported on May 21 (Reuters). A federal judge ruled that Google and artificial intelligence startup Character.AI must face the lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Anne Conway said that Google and Character.AI failed to prove early in the case that the U.S. Constitution's free speech clause was sufficient to dismiss Megan Garcia's lawsuit. This is one of the first cases in the US to involve AI liability for psychological harm. The complaint alleges that Garcia's son was addicted to Cha<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[1830,236,275,281],"collection":[],"class_list":["post-35940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-character","tag-236","tag-275","tag-281"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35940"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=35940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}