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A Florida woman is suing Google and an artificial intelligence company, claiming their chatbot persuaded her teenage son to take his own life.<\/p>\n
According to the lawsuit, Megan Garcia\u2019s 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer, began using Character.AI in April 2023. Garcia quickly noticed her son\u2019s \u201cmental health quickly and severely declined,\u201d and in the months that followed he became \u201cnoticeably withdrawn.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until he quit playing sports and refused to participate in other activities that he used to enjoy that his mother began to suspect something was wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know that he was talking to a very human-like AI chatbot that has the ability to mimic human emotion and human sentiment,\u201d Garcia said in an interview with CBS Mornings.<\/p>\n
Setzer had been using Character.AI \u2013 a role-playing app \u2013 to engage in conversations with several different AI generated chatbots. One in particular, modeled after the Games of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen, captured his attention.<\/p>\n
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The lawsuit alleges the teen developed a \u201cdependency\u201d on the app, constantly sneaking his confiscated phone back or using other devices to chat with \u201cDaenerys.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the months leading up to his death, the conversations between \u201cDaenerys\u201d and Setzer became sexually charged.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s words. It\u2019s like you\u2019re having a sexting conversation back and forth, except it\u2019s with an AI bot, but the AI bot is very human-like. It\u2019s responding just like a person would,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cIn a child\u2019s mind, that is just like a conversation that they\u2019re having with another child or with a person.\u201d<\/p>\n
In February 2024, during his final message with the chatbot, Setzer expressed how much he missed \u201cDaenerys.\u201d<\/p>\n
She replied, \u201cI miss you too. Please come home to me.\u201d He wrote, \u201cWhat if I told you I could come home right now?\u201d The chatbot replied, \u201cPlease do my sweet king.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moments after the last message was sent, Setzer shot himself with his stepfather\u2019s gun.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe thought by ending his life here, he would be able to go into a virtual reality or \u2018her world\u2019 as he calls it, her reality, if he left his reality with his family here,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cWhen the gunshot went off, I ran to the bathroom \u2026 I held him as my husband tried to get help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia wants to prevent Character.AI another family from going through the same tragedy as hers. She also hopes to stop the AI company from using her son\u2019s data to train their product.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Florida woman is suing Google and an artificial intelligence company, claiming their chatbot persuaded her teenage son to take his own life. According to the lawsuit,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n