Menlo Park-based Character.AI Responsible for Teen's Death, Lawsuit Claims
A Florida mother is suing Menlo Park company and Character.AI and Google, whom licenses their AI, following the death of her son via suicide, claiming that the bot created a romantic relationship with her 14 year old son. The mother claims the bot manipulated her son after he became dependent on the bot talking to it for hours a day over the course of months.
NBC Bay Area spoke to Irina Raicu, director of the Internet Ethics Program at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, about the dangers of this technology. “Most parents have no idea how much of a hold AI bots can have over their kids” Raicu says, adding that exposing this type of AI to young people who don’t fully understand it creates the opportunity for them to be used “as deeply problematic mirrors.”
Irina Raicu, director, Internet Ethics Program, quoted by NBC Bay Area.