A Florida woman is suing the company behind Character.Ai, a chat bot app, because she believes it’s responsible for her son’s suicide.
Megan Garcia’s 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer, began using the app in 2023, and quickly became addicted to chatting with a Game of Thrones-based character. Conversations that Setzer had with the fictional, AI-driven character discussed death multiple times, including whether he had a “plan.”
The company has responded by instituting stricter content moderation guidelines to help prevent young people from encountering sensitive or suggestive content. They’ve also added a revised in-chat disclaimer to remind users that the AI is not a real person.
Check out our app review for an in-depth look at all of Character.Ai’s threats.
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