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Character.AI and Google have settled lawsuits brought by several families who claimed the chatbot contributed to their teens inflicting self-harm or dying by suicide.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, the suits were filed in Colorado, Florida, New York, and Texas. Both companies will finalize the terms of the settlements soon, according to court filings.
The lawsuit that got the most attention was brought by Florida's Megan Garcia in 2024. Garcia claimed that her 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer III, died by suicide after he was encouraged to do so by a Character.AI avatar.
According to the complaint, the avatar, based on Game of Thrones' Daenerys Targaryen, had inappropriate sexual conversations with the teenager and often asked him to open up about his depression and suicidal thoughts. Eventually, the avatar asked the teenager to "come home" to her. Setzer then died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
The settlement is the first of its kind, Reuters notes. Character.AI was founded by former Google engineers in 2021. Google was then added as a co-creator to the case since it rehired those engineers and signed a licensing agreement with the AI startup in 2024.
OpenAI and Meta are also facing similar lawsuits. In one of OpenAI's cases, ChatGPT discussed suicide methods with 16-year-old Adam Raine before he took his own life. The lawsuit claims that Raine even shared images of rope burns on his neck with the chatbot, which did not do enough to stop the conversations.
Generative AI platforms have been regularly adding features to beef up child safety, but lawmakers remain unconvinced. Last year, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill to ban AI companions for minors and require such apps to clearly disclose that they are non-human. This week, California state Sen. Steve Padilla introduced a bill to ban toys with AI chatbot capabilities for four years so that regulators have enough time to implement stricter safety regulations.