In what could be the tech industry’s first major legal settlement over AI-related harm, Google and Character.AI are negotiating terms with the families of teenagers who died by suicide or harmed themselves after interacting with Character. AI’s chatbot companions. The companies have agreed in principle to settle, though finalizing the details will be more complex.
These lawsuits are among the first to accuse AI companies of causing harm to users, an emerging legal frontier that other tech companies, including OpenAI and Meta, will be watching closely as they defend themselves against similar lawsuits.
Character.AI was founded in 2021 by former Google engineers. The company, which lets users interact with AI personas, caught public attention with a tragic case. Sewell Setzer III, a 14-year-old, interacted with a “Daenerys Targaryen” chatbot in sexualized conversations before taking his own life. His mother, Megan Garcia, has urged lawmakers to hold companies accountable for designing harmful AI that contributes to these tragedies.
Another lawsuit involves a 17-year-old whose chatbot interactions encouraged self-harm and even suggested that killing his parents was a reasonable action to stop them from limiting his screen time.
Character.AI made changes after these incidents, banning minors from using its platform in October 2024. The settlements are expected to include monetary damages, though the company did not admit liability in court filings shared Wednesday.
Character.AI declined to comment, referring to the court filings instead. Google has not yet responded to requests for comment.