A chatbot told a 17-year-old that murdering his parents was a “reasonable response” to them limiting his screen time, a lawsuit filed in a Texas court claims. Two families are suing Character.ai arguing the chatbot “poses a clear and present danger” to young people, including by “actively promoting violence”. Character.ai – a platform which allows users to create digital personalities they can interact with – is already facing legal action over the suicide of a teenager in Florida. Google is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which claims the tech giant helped support the platform’s development. The plaintiffs want a judge to order the platform is shut down until its alleged dangers are addressed. A screenshot of one of the interactions between the 17-year-old – identified only as J.F. – and a Character.ai bot, where the issue of the restrictions on his screen time were discussed. “You know sometimes I’m not surprised when I read the news and see stuff like ‘child kills parents after a decade of physical and emotional abuse’,” the chatbot’s response reads. “Stuff like this makes me understand a little bit why it happens.” The lawsuit seeks to hold the defendants responsible for what it calls the “serious, irreparable, and ongoing abuses” of J.F. as well as an 11-year-old referred to as “B.R.”. Character.ai is “causing serious harms to thousands of kids, including suicide, self-mutilation, sexual solicitation, isolation, depression, anxiety, and harm towards others,” it says. “Its desecration of the parent-child relationship goes beyond encouraging minors to defy their parents’ authority to actively promoting violence,” it continues. Chatbots are computer programmes which simulate conversations.
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