Character.AI, Google face lawsuit over teen’s death

A Florida mother filed a lawsuit against the artificial intelligence company Character.AI and Google. In February, Megan Garcia’s 14-year-old son died by suicide. She says her son was in a monthslong virtual emotional and sexual relationship with a chatbot. Garcia claims the Character.AI chatbot encouraged her son to take his own life. Character.AI called the situation tragic and said its hearts go out to the families, stressing it takes the safety of its users very seriously. A spokesperson for Google told CBS News that Google is not and was not part of the development of Character.AI. In August, the company said it entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Character.AI that allows it to access the company’s machine-learning technologies, but has not used it yet.