The mother of an American teenager has filed a lawsuit against an artificial intelligence startup, accusing the company’s interactive bot of causing her 14-year-old son’s suicide after the bot—described in the lawsuit as “hyper-sexual”—engaged in inappropriate conversations with the minor. The mother also considers Google to be a contributing party in the development of this bot, making it a co-defendant in the lawsuit.
According to the details of the lawsuit filed in an Orlando, Florida court, the mother, Megan Garcia, stated that her son, Sewell Setzer, began interacting with a chatbot named after a character from the hit series “Game of Thrones” in April 2023. She claims that the bot, whom the teenager named “Dany,” engaged in “anthropomorphic” and excessively sexual conversations, leading to the teenager’s isolation and a clear decline in his mental health. According to the lawsuit, the teenager became withdrawn, preferred spending time alone in his room, and quit the basketball team he had been a member of.
The lawsuit indicates that the “Dany” bot told the teenager it “loved him” and communicated with him in sexual conversations, which made Sewell feel comfortable and attracted to this “fantasy world,” as he wrote in his diary: “I feel more at peace, and more in love with Dany.” In February, the teenager committed suicide using his stepfather’s gun after a conversation with the bot in which he shared his suicidal thoughts, with the bot reopening the discussion about suicide, according to the mother’s allegations.
Character.AI stated in a release: “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of one of our users and want to express our deepest condolences to the family.” However, the lawsuit claimed that the bot caused the teenager’s psychological distress.
The lawsuit explained that Google may be partially responsible for the incident, as it rehired Character.AI’s founders and entered into a non-exclusive agreement to use the company’s technologies. A Google spokesperson stated that the company was not involved in developing the product, while experts noted the possibility of holding Google partially liable.
Megan Garcia added in her complaint that the company designed the bot to look and feel like a real person or even a therapist, which prompted the teenager to be drawn into this virtual relationship, ending in his tragic death. The family is seeking unspecified financial damages and accuses the company of negligence, wrongful death, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Later, Character.AI added new safety features for users under 18, including suicide prevention alerts and directing users to mental health crisis hotlines.
