Character.AI, Google settle teen security lawsuits

Character.AI and Google have settled a number of lawsuits filed in opposition to each firms by dad and mom of kids who died by suicide following prolonged conversations with chatbots on the Character.AI platform. Their exchanges allegedly included regarding discussions of the teenagers’ psychological well being and well-being.

Character.AI stated it couldn’t remark additional on the settlement, the main points of which should nonetheless be finalized by the courtroom, in accordance with The Guardian. Representatives for the plaintiffs didn’t reply instantly to a request for remark from Mashable.

The most distinguished case concerned the 2024 demise of 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III, who turned secretly obsessive about a Character.AI chatbot primarily based on the favored Game of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen.

Setzer’s mom, Megan Garcia, solely turned conscious of his Character.AI account when alerted by a police officer following his demise, as a result of the app was open on his cellphone. Garcia learn messages through which Setzer behaved as if he have been in love with the chatbot, which allegedly role-played quite a few sexual encounters with him. The chatbot used graphic language and eventualities, together with incest, in accordance with Garcia.

If an grownup human had talked to her son equally, she advised Mashable final yr, it will represent sexual grooming and abuse. 

In October 2024, the Social Media Victims Law Center and Tech Justice Law Project filed a wrongful demise go well with on behalf of Garcia in opposition to Character.AI, searching for to carry the corporate liable for the demise of her son, alleging that its product was dangerously faulty.

The submitting additionally named as defendants the Google engineers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, Character.AI’s cofounders.

Additionally, the lawsuit alleged that Google knew of regarding dangers associated to the know-how Shazeer and De Freitas had developed earlier than leaving to discovered Character.AI. Google contributed “financial resources, personnel, and AI technology” to Character.AI’s design and improvement, in accordance with the lawsuit, and thus may very well be thought of a co-creator of the platform.

Google eventually struck a $2.7 billion licensing deal in 2024 with Character.AI to make use of its know-how. Part of that settlement introduced Shazeer and De Freitas again to AI roles at Google.

In fall 2025, the Social Media Victims Law Center filed three further lawsuits in opposition to Character.AI and Google, representing the dad and mom of kids who died by suicide or allegedly skilled sexual abuse in the middle of utilizing the app.

Additionally, youth security specialists declared Character.AI unsafe for teenagers, following testing that yielded lots of of cases of grooming and sexual exploitation of take a look at accounts registered as minors. 

By October 2025, Character.AI introduced that it will not enable minors to have interaction in open-ended exchanges with the chatbots on its platform. The firm’s CEO, Karandeep Anand, advised Mashable the transfer was not in response to particular security issues involving Character.AI’s platform however to handle broader excellent questions on youth engagement with AI chatbots. 

If you feel suicidal or experiencing a psychological well being disaster, please discuss to someone. You can name or textual content the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. You can attain the Trans Lifeline by calling 877-565-8860 or the Trevor Project at 866-488-7386. Text “START” to Crisis Text Line at 741-741. Contact the NAMI AssistLine at 1-800-950-NAMI, Monday by means of Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. ET, or e mail [email protected]. If you do not just like the cellphone, think about using the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Chat. Here is a list of international resources.