Lawsuit claims AI chatbot app caused Florida teen to take his life [Video]

Editors note: This article discusses sensitive topics such as suicide. An Orlando mother is suing a popular artificial intelligence chatbot service after she claims it encouraged her 14-year-old son to take his own life in February. According to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Orlando, Megan Garcia says her 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer, committed suicide after becoming addicted to Character.AI, an application that allows users to have human-like conversations with AI bots.Users can make their own bots with their own personalities or choose to chat with bots made by other users. Oftentimes, these bots are based on celebrities or fictional characters from TV shows or movies.Garcia says Character.AI’s recklessness when it comes to targeting children and the company’s lack of safety features caused her son’s untimely death. The lawsuit lists numerous complaints against Charcter.AI, including wrongful death and survivorship, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.According to court …