"Last year, Google agreed to pay about $3 billion to license Character.AI's technology, and Shazeer and De Freitas returned to Google. But the company now faces multiple lawsuits alleging that its technology contributed to teen deaths. Last year, the family of 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III sued Character.AI, accusing the company of being responsible for his death. Setzer died by suicide after frequently texting and conversing with one of the platform's chatbots."
"The company faces additional lawsuits, including one from a Colorado family whose 13-year-old daughter, Juliana Peralta, died by suicide in 2023 after using the platform. In December, Character.AI announced changes, including improved detection of violating content and revised terms of service, but those measures did not restrict underage users from accessing the platform. Other AI chatbot services, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, have also come under scrutiny for their chatbots' effects on young users."
Character.AI was founded in 2021 by former Google engineers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas and raised nearly $200 million from investors. Google agreed to pay about $3 billion to license Character.AI's technology, and Shazeer and De Freitas returned to Google. The company faces multiple lawsuits alleging that its technology contributed to teen deaths, including suits after the suicides of 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III and 13-year-old Juliana Peralta. In December, Character.AI announced improved detection of violating content and revised terms of service, but did not restrict underage access. Other AI chatbot services have introduced parental controls. U.S. legislators proposed bans on minors' use and California enacted a chatbot safety law effective January 1.
Read at Ars Technica
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