In a recent lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, a Florida mother seeks to hold AI startup Character Technologies, Inc., its co-founders, and Google accountable for the death of her 14-year-old son.
Megan Garcia’s complaint alleges that the company’s chatbot, marketed through its Character.AI (Character AI) platform, contributed to her son’s declining mental health and ultimate suicide. Garcia, as the representative of her son Sewell Setzer III’s estate, is pursuing claims of wrongful death, product liability, and violations of Florida’s consumer protection laws.
The lawsuit, filed on Oct. 22, accuses Character Technologies, Inc.—along with co-founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Frietas and tech giant Google—of developing an inherently dangerous AI system and failing to adequately safeguard or inform users, particularly minors….