Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Smart Income LibrarySmart Income Library

Tech News

Character.AI and Google sued after chatbot-obsessed teen’s death

Photo illustration of a computer with a brain on the screen.
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Getty Images

A lawsuit has been filed against Character.AI, its founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, and Google in the wake of a teenager’s death, alleging wrongful death, negligence, deceptive trade practices, and product liability. Filed by the teen’s mother, Megan Garcia, it claims the platform for custom AI chatbots was “unreasonably dangerous” and lacked safety guardrails while being marketed to children.

As outlined in the lawsuit, 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III began using Character.AI last year, interacting with chatbots modeled after characters from The Game of Thrones, including Daenerys Targaryen. Setzer, who chatted with the bots continuously in the months before his death, died by suicide on February 28th, 2024, “seconds” after…

Continue reading…

You May Also Like

Politics

Sister Stephanie Schmidt had a hunch about what her fellow nuns would discuss over dinner at their Erie, Pennsylvania, monastery on Wednesday night. The...

Politics

In the final three weeks of the presidential race, former president Donald Trump and his advisers have attacked one particular foe more than three...

Politics

“And there’s very few states that benefit like you do from fracking. I mean, you have 500,000 jobs.” — Former president Donald Trump, remarks...

Politics

MADISON, Wis. — Early voting kicked off in this battleground state this week with computer delays and long lines. Voters waited as long as...