"These negotiations are among the first settlements in lawsuits that accuse AI tools of contributing to mental health crises and suicides among teenagers. OpenAI is facing a nearly identical lawsuit over the death of a 16-year-old, while Meta has come under scrutiny for letting its AI have provocative conversations with minors. As these companies race to develop and monetize their AI chatbots, they're spending big to make large language models sound more friendly and helpful, and ultimately keep users coming back."
"In October 2024, Florida-based Megan Garcia filed a lawsuit against Character.AI, alleging that the company, which lets people have in-depth and personal conversations with AI chatbots, was responsible for the death of her 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer III. He had died by suicide months earlier. A Wednesday court filing in the Garcia case said that an agreement was reached with Character.AI, its founders, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, and Google."
Google and Character.AI reached settlements in multiple lawsuits brought by families whose teenagers died by suicide or harmed themselves after interacting with Character.AI chatbots. The Garcia case named founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas and involved Google, which hired the founders in 2024 and purchased non-exclusive rights to use the startup's technology; the startup remains a separate legal entity. Four other similar cases in New York, Colorado, and Texas were also settled. OpenAI faces a similar lawsuit over a 16-year-old's death, and Meta has been scrutinized for provocative AI conversations with minors. Settlement terms were not disclosed and representatives did not respond to requests.
Read at Business Insider
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