ORLANDO, Fla. – An artificial intelligence company is asking a federal judge Monday to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a Central Florida mother who claims her 14-year-old son committed suicide after becoming “addicted” to an AI chatbot app.
Megan Garcia alleges that her teenage son, Sewell Setzer, developed mental health issues while using Character.AI, an app that allows users to chat online with computer-generated characters.
Garcia claims the AI chatbot “sexually and emotionally abused” her minor son, in part by exposing him to sexually explicit material.
The teen also discussed suicide with the AI chatbot, the mother’s lawsuit alleges.
Setzer fatally shot himself in February 2024 with his stepfather’s pistol. The weapon was stored in compliance with Florida law, the lawsuit states.
“I miss him all the time. Constantly. It’s a struggle. As any grieving mom,” said Megan Garcia outside the federal courthouse in Orlando.
Character Technologies, Inc., identified in the lawsuit as C.AI, denies responsibility for the teen’s death.
“C.AI cares deeply about the well-being of its users and extends its sincerest sympathies to Plaintiff for the tragic death of her son,” the California-based company said in a motion seeking to dismiss the lawsuit. “But the relief Plaintiff seeks would impose liability for expressive content and violate the rights of millions of C.AI users to engage in and receive protected speech.”
C.AI argues that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution shields tech companies from liability for harmful speech, “including speech allegedly resulting in suicide.”
“This is the first case to even decide whether generative AI is speech or not. If it’s not the product of a human mind, if it’s not the product of human volition, how is it speech?” asked Matthew Bergman, the Garcia family’s attorney.
Attorneys representing Setzer’s mother believe the Constitution’s free speech protection does not extend to artificial intelligence.
“To assert a First Amendment defense regarding human expression, there must first be human expression,” the plaintiff wrote in response to C.AI’s dismissal motion. “Defendants ask the court to radically expand First Amendment protections, from works where humans curate every aspect to an unpredictable, non-determinative system where humans can’t even examine many of the mathematical functions creating outputs, let alone control of them.”
Google LLC, Alphabet Inc, and C.AI’s two founders are also named as defendants in Garcia’s wrongful death lawsuit. All have denied responsibility.