A Florida mother is suing Menlo Park’s Character.AI, accusing the company’s chatbot of initiating a romantic relationship with her teenage son and causing him to take his own life.
According to the lawsuit, the 14-year-old boy started using Character.AI in April 2023. The platform provides a selection of AI characters to interact with.
In this case, the teen was chatting with a bot that identified as “Game of Thrones” character Daenerys Targaryen.
Matthew Bergman, the lawyer representing the mother, said the teen became dependent on the chatbot, talking back and forth for hours at a time, and claims ultimately he was being manipulated by the bot.
The lawsuit claims the bots were intentionally designed to operate as a deceptive and hypersexualized product.
At one point, the family claims, the teen asked the bot, “What if I told you I could come home right now?” The bot responded, “… please do, my sweet king.”
When the teen expressed …