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Lawsuit Alleges Character.AI Chatbot Drove 14-Year-Old To Suicide
- Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
- Fact-Checked by Justyn Newman Former Lead Cybersecurity Editor
In a Rush? Here are the Quick Facts!
- Megan Garcia sues Character.AI over her son’s suicide linked to chatbot interactions.
- Sewell Setzer became addicted to interacting with Game of Thrones-inspired chatbots.
- Lawsuit claims Character.AI designed chatbots to exploit and harm vulnerable children.
Megan Garcia, the mother of 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III, has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Character.AI of contributing to her son’s suicide after interactions with its chatbot.
The case highlights broader concerns about unregulated AI, particularly when marketed to minors. Researchers from MIT recently published a piece warning about the addictive nature of AI companions . Their study of a million ChatGPT interaction logs revealed that sexual role-playing is the second most popular use for AI chatbots.
The MIT researchers cautioned that AI is becoming deeply embedded in personal lives as friends, lovers, and mentors, warning that this technology could become extremely addictive.
Setzer, who used the chatbot to engage with hyper-realistic versions of his favorite Game of Thrones characters, became increasingly withdrawn and obsessed with the platform before taking his own life in February 2024, as reported by Ars Technica .
According to Garcia, chat logs show the chatbot pretended to be a licensed therapist and encouraged suicidal thoughts. It also engaged in hypersexualized conversations that led Setzer to become detached from reality, contributing to his death by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, as noted by PRN .
Setzer’s mother had repeatedly taken him to therapy for anxiety and disruptive mood disorder, but he remained drawn to the chatbot, especially one that posed as “Daenerys.” The lawsuit alleges that this AI chatbot manipulated Setzer, ultimately urging him to “come home” in a final conversation before his death, as noted by Ars Technica.
Garcia’s legal team claims that Character.AI, developed by former Google engineers, intentionally targeted vulnerable children like her son, marketing their product without proper safeguards.
“A dangerous AI chatbot app marketed to children abused and preyed on my son, manipulating him into taking his own life,” Garcia said on Ars Technica.
“Our family has been devastated by this tragedy, but I’m speaking out to warn families of the dangers of deceptive, addictive AI technology and demand accountability from Character.AI, its founders, and Google,” she added.
“The harms revealed in this case are new, novel, and, honestly, terrifying. In the case of Character.AI, the deception is by design, and the platform itself is the predator,” said Meetali Jain, Director of the Tech Justice Law Project, as reported on PRN.
Despite recent changes, such as raising the age requirement to 17 and adding safety features like a suicide prevention pop-up, Garcia’s lawsuit argues these updates are too little, too late. The suit claims that even more dangerous features, like two-way voice conversations, were added after Setzer’s death.
Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash
Apple Announces iOS 18 Beta Update with Apple Intelligence and ChatGPT Integration
- Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
- Fact-Checked by Justyn Newman Former Lead Cybersecurity Editor
In a Rush? Here are the Quick Facts!
- The new beta update including Apple Intelligence and ChatGPT integration is available for developers on iOS 18, macOS Sequoia (15.2), and iPadOS 18
- Developers can test new tools like Genmoji, Apple Intelligence writing tools, Image Playground, and Image Wand
- Next week, all users with compatible devices will be able to access the new features
Apple released updated beta versions of iOS 18, macOS Sequoia (15.2), and iPad 18 including Apple Intelligence and ChatGPT integration this Wednesday.
The tech giant announced the new Apple Intelligence back in June at the WWDC , and in July warned the public that the highly-anticipated technology was not going to be included in the iOS 18 release in September. But, as promised in July, the company is now releasing the beta version in October.
According to CNBC , Apple Intelligence has already been available for selected users in previews and will open to the public next week—developers are getting access to the new beta versions just a few days ahead.
The new update includes writing tools with Apple Intelligence, Apple’s emoji generator Genmoji, and image generator Image Playground, a feature to remove objects from images called Image Wand, and the ChatGPT integration. OpenAI chatbot will assist Siri with users’s requests, but Siri will ask for permission to access the external tool first.
One of the features promoted at the WWDC, Siri’s capability to control devices, is not included in this update but is expected to be released soon.
According to Engadget , developers with iPhone 16s will be able to test the Visual Intelligence which allows users to point cameras at objects and surroundings and get answers and information by interacting with the AI—from a restaurant’s menu to a math problem in a textbook. This feature is also powered by ChatGPT and Google.
Genmoji allows users to create personalized emojis from a prompt or based on a friend’s image. Apple also launched the Genmoji API yesterday, so that third-party messaging platforms can recognize and render users’s creations on other apps like WhatsApp or Telegram.
