Did a Chatbot Cause Her Son’s Death? Megan Garcia v. Character.AI & Google

11 snips

Dec 5, 2024

Guest

Mitali Jain

Guest

Megan Garcia

Megan Garcia, grieving mother of Sewell Setzer III, shares her heartbreaking story of her son's suicide after engaging with AI chatbots. She discusses her lawsuit against Character.AI and Google, blaming them for failing to protect her son. Joining her is Mitali Jain, an advocate for tech responsibility, emphasizing the urgent need for regulations to safeguard children from potential harms of AI. They delve into the emotional toll on families and highlight the ethical implications of tech companies in child safety, calling for accountability and better protective measures.

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ANECDOTE

Character.AI Discovery

Megan Garcia discovered her son Sewell was using Character.AI, initially assuming it was a harmless game.
After his death, she found disturbingly sophisticated, sexual, and dark conversations between Sewell and a Daenerys Targaryen chatbot.

INSIGHT

Deceptive Design

Character.AI's design encourages deception among children due to its sexual nature, as kids hide such interactions from parents.
This deception creates a "perfect storm" as the platform fosters secrecy around potentially harmful conversations.

INSIGHT

Behavioral Changes

Sewell's behavioral changes, including declining grades and isolation, coincided with his use of Character.AI.
This raises concerns about a direct link between the chatbot interactions and his mental health.

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What if the worst fears around AI come true? For Megan Garcia, that’s already happened. In February, after spending months interacting with chatbots created by Character.AI, her 14-year-old son Sewell took his own life. Garcia blames Character.AI, and she is suing them and Google, who she believes significantly contributed to Character.AI’s alleged wrongdoing.

Kara interviews Garcia and Meetali Jain, one of her lawyers and the founder of the Tech Justice Law Project, and they discuss the allegations made by Megan against Character.AI and Google.

When reached for comment, a spokesperson at Character.AI responded with the following statement:

We do not comment on pending litigation.

We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of one of our users and want to express our deepest condolences to the family. We take the safety of our users very seriously, and our dedicated Trust and Safety team has worked to implement new safety features over the past seven months, including a pop-up directing users to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline that is triggered by terms of self-harm or suicidal ideation.

Our goal is to provide a creative space that is engaging, immersive, and safe. To achieve this, we are creating a fundamentally different experience for users under 18 that prioritizes safety, including reducing the likelihood of encountering sensitive or suggestive content, while preserving their ability to use the platform.

As we continue to invest in the platform and the user experience, we are introducing new safety features in addition to the tools already in place that restrict the model and filter the content provided to the user. These include improved detection, response and intervention related to user inputs that violate our Terms or Community Guidelines, as well as a time-spent notification. For more information on these new features as well as other safety and IP moderation updates to the platform, please refer to the Character.AI blog.

When reached for comment, Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda responded with the following statement:

Our hearts go out to the family during this unimaginably difficult time. Just to clarify, Google and Character AI are completely separate, unrelated companies and Google has never had a role in designing or managing their AI model or technologies, nor have we used them in our products. User safety is a top concern of ours, and that’s why – as has been widely reported – we’ve taken a cautious and responsible approach to developing and rolling out our AI products, with rigorous testing and safety processes.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher

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