A chatbot told a 17-year-old that killing his parents was a “reasonable response” to limiting screen time, a lawsuit filed in a Texas court alleges
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Two families are suing Character.ai claiming that the chatbot “poses a clear and present danger” to young people, including by “actively promoting violence.”
Character.ai – a platform that allows users to create digital personalities with which they can interact – is already facing legal proceedings over the suicide of a teenager in Florida.
Google is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which alleges that the tech giant helped support the development of the platform.
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The plaintiffs want a judge to order the platform to shut down until the alleged risks to children and adolescents are addressed.
The legal filing includes a screenshot of one of the interactions between the 17-year-old - identified only as JF - and a Character.ai, where the issue of his screen time restrictions was discussed.
The lawsuit seeks to hold the defendants responsible for what it calls “serious, irreparable and ongoing abuses” of JF as well as an 11-year-old referred to as “BR.”
Character.ai “causes serious harm to thousands of children, including suicide, self-mutilation, sexual harassment, isolation, depression, anxiety, and harm to others,” it says.
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Character.ai, which has become a major player in this space, has drawn attention in the past for its bots that mimicked psychological therapists. It has also been heavily criticized for being slow to remove bots that mimicked students Molly Russell and Brianna Ghey.
Source: BBC
