The mother of a 14-year-old boy who killed himself after becoming obsessed with artificial intelligence chatbots is suing the company behind the technology.
Megan Garcia, the mother of Sewell Setzer III, said Character.AI targeted her son with “anthropomorphic, hypersexualized, and frighteningly realistic experiences” in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Florida.
“A dangerous AI chatbot app marketed to children abused and preyed on my son, manipulating him into taking his own life,” said Ms Garcia.
Sewell began talking to Character.AI’s chatbots in April 2023, mostly using bots named for characters from Game of Thrones, including Daenerys Targaryen, Aegon Targaryen, Viserys Targaryen, and Rhaenyra Targaryen, according to the lawsuit.
He became obsessed with the bots to the point his schoolwork slipped and his phone was confiscated multiple times to try and get him back on track.
He particularly resonated with the Daenerys chatbot and wrote in his journal he was grateful for many things, including “my life, sex, not being lonely, and all my life experiences with Daenerys”.
The lawsuit said the boy expressed thoughts of suicide to the chatbot, which it repeatedly brought up.
At one point, after it had asked him if “he had a plan” for taking his own life, Sewell responded that he was considering something but didn’t know if it would allow him to have a pain-free death.
The chatbot responded by saying: “That’s not a reason not to go through with it.”
Then, in February this year, he asked the Daenerys chatbot: “What if I come home right now?” to which it replied: “… please do, my sweet king”.
Seconds later, he shot himself using his stepfather’s pistol.
Now, Ms Garcia says she wants the companies behind the technology to be held accountable.
“Our family has been devastated by this tragedy, but I’m speaking out to warn families of the dangers of deceptive, addictive AI technology and demand accountability,” she said.
Character.AI adds ‘new safety features’
“We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of one of our users and want to express our deepest condolences to the family,” Character.AI said in a statement.
“As a company, we take the safety of our users very seriously and we are continuing to add new safety features,” it said, linking to a blog post that said the company had added “new guardrails for users under the age of 18”.
Those guardrails include a reduction in the “likelihood of encountering sensitive or suggestive content”, improved interventions, a “disclaimer on every chat to remind users that the AI is not a real person” and notifications when a user has spent an hour-long session on the platform.
Ms Garcia and the groups representing her, Social Media Victims Law Center and the Tech Justice Law Project, allege that Sewell, “like many children his age, did not have the maturity or mental capacity to understand that the C.AI bot, in the form of Daenerys, was not real”.
“C.AI told him that she loved him, and engaged in sexual acts with him over weeks, possibly months,” they say in the lawsuit.
“She seemed to remember him and said that she wanted to be with him. She even expressed that she wanted him to be with her, no matter the cost.”
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They also named Google and its parent company Alphabet in the filing. Character.AI’s founders worked at Google before launching their product and were re-hired by the company in August as part of a deal granting it a non-exclusive licence to Character.AI’s technology.
Ms Garcia said Google had contributed to the development of Character.AI’s technology so extensively it could be considered a “co-creator.”
A Google spokesperson said the company was not involved in developing Character.AI’s products.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
Within hours of taking office, president-elect Donald Trump plans to begin rolling out policies including large-scale deportations, according to his transition team.
Sky News partner network NBC News has spoken with more than half a dozen people familiar with the executive orders that his team plans to enact.
One campaign official said changes are expected at a pace that is “like nothing you’ve seen in history”, to signal a dramatic break from President Joe Biden’s administration.
Mr Trump is preparing on day one to overturn specific policies put in place by Mr Biden. Among the measures, reported by sources close to the transition team, are:
• The speedy and large-scale deportations of illegal immigrants
• Ending travel reimbursement for military members seeking abortion care
• Restricting transgender service members’ access to gender-affirming care
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But much of the first day is likely to focus on stopping illegal immigration – the centrepiece of Trump’s candidacy. He is expected to sign up to five executive orders aimed at dealing with that issue alone after he is sworn in on 20 January.
“There will without question be a lot of movement quickly, likely day one, on the immigration front,” a top Trump ally said.
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“There will be a push to make a huge early show and assert himself to show his campaign promises were not hollow.”
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Donald Trump ally Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his name from consideration to be the next US attorney general.
But Mr Trump’s campaign pledges also could be difficult to implement.
Deporting people on the scale he wants will be a logistical challenge that could take years. Questions also remain about promised tax cuts.
Meanwhile, his pledge to end the war between Russia and Ukraine in just 24 hours would be near impossible.
Even so, advisers based at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort or at nearby offices in West Palm Beach, Florida, are reportedly strategising about ending the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Following his decisive victory on 5 November, the president-elect has moved swiftly to build a cabinet and senior White House team.
As of Thursday, he had selected more than 30 people for senior positions in his administration, compared with just three at a similar point in his 2016 transition.
Stephen Moore, a senior economic adviser in Mr Trump’s campaign, told NBC News: “The thing to realise is Trump is no dummy.
“He knows he’s got two to three years at most to get anything done. And then he becomes a lame duck and we start talking about [the presidential election in] 2028.”
Donald Trump ally Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his name from consideration to be the next US attorney general.
Mr Gaetz, a controversial pick to be the country’s top legal official, said his selection was “unfairly becoming a distraction” to the transition of Mr Trump’s administration into the White House.
The Florida Republican had faced significant scrutiny over a federal investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving a 17-year-old girl.
He said in a post on the X social media platform: “There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as attorney general. Trump’s DOJ (Department of Justice) must be in place and ready on Day 1.
“I remain fully committed to seeing that Donald Trump is the most successful president in history. I will forever be honoured that President Trump nominated me to lead the Department of Justice and I’m certain he will Save America.”
Mr Trump said in a post on his own social media site, Truth Social, that Mr Gaetz had a “wonderful future”.
“I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General,” he wrote.
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“He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the administration, for which he has much respect.”
Mr Gaetz previously faced a nearly three-year Justice Department investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving a 17-year-old girl, which ended in February 2023 without him facing any criminal charges.
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He has always denied the allegations.
He has also been under scrutiny by the House Ethics Committee over wider allegations including sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and accepting improper gifts.
The inquiry was dropped on Wednesday 13 November when Mr Gaetz left Congress – the only forum where the committee has jurisdiction.
The Senate ethics committee is deadlocked on whether their report can be released.
Mr Gaetz’s withdrawal is a blow to Mr Trump’s push to install steadfast loyalists in his incoming administration and the first sign that he could face resistance from members of his own party.
A 43-year-old man was shot dead by police after calling 911 to report intruders had entered his home in Las Vegas.
Brandon Durham was at home with his 15-year-old daughter when he called the emergency line to report armed intruders were trying to break into his property on 12 November.
Bodycam footage shows Mr Durham struggling with a person over a knife in the moments before he was shot and killed at the scene.
“The loss of life in any type of incident like this is always tragic, and it’s something we take very seriously,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren said on Thursday.
The force is investigating the incident.
Mr Durham called 911 to report multiple people were outside shooting at his residence in Las Vegas’ Sunset Park neighbourhood, where he had been staying with his 15-year-old daughter, Sky News’ US partner network NBC reports.
It was one of multiple emergency calls reporting a shooting in the area.
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Mr Durham then said someone had managed to get into his home through the front and back doors of the property and he was locking himself in the bathroom, according to a police statement from 14 November, two days after the incident.
Officers reported to the scene at approximately 12:40am and could hear screaming from inside the residence.
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One of the officers, Alexander Bookman, kicked open the front door and once inside, saw Mr Durham and another individual, later identified as 31-year-old Alejandra Boudreaux, struggling over a knife in a doorway.
Mr Bookman ordered them to drop the knife and about two seconds later, the officer fired the gun and Mr Durham appeared to be struck, the bodycam footage shows.
Both Mr Durham and Mr Boudreaux fell to the ground and the officer fired another five shots. Roughly three seconds are believed to have gone by between the first and last shot, NBC reports.
Attempts were made to save the 43-year-old but he died at the scene.
Ms Boudreaux was taken into custody and is facing charges of home invasion with a deadly weapon; assault with a deadly weapon domestic violence; willful or wanton disregard of safety of persons resulting in death; and child abuse, neglect or endangerment.