The mother of a 14-year-old Florida boy is suing a Silicon Valley AI company, saying its chatbot is connected to his death by suicide.
Sewell Seltzer III had been chatting for months with a chatbot he called "Daenerys Targaryen," after the Game of Thrones character.
His mother says that although he knew he was not chatting with a real person, he became emotionally attached to the bot and sank into isolation and depression before taking his own life. His mother is suing Menlo Park-based "Character Technologies, Inc" -- which created the custom chatbot service CharacterBot AI.The lawsuit claims Character Technologies was reckless by offering minors access to lifelike companions without proper safeguards.
Character AI issued a statement saying in part, "As a company, we take the safety of our users very seriously, and our Trust and Safety team has implemented numerous new safety measures over the past six months...including a pop-up directing users to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline that is triggered by terms of self-harm or suicidal ideation."
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Silicon Valley company works to thwart thieves vandalizing EV chargers hunting for copperCharging companies are catching people on camera cutting cords across entire stations, typically to strip out the copper and sell it for a profit.
Read more »
‘Economic Dystopia:’ Silicon Valley Tycoon Predicts AI Will Take Over 80% of All WorkSource of breaking news and analysis, insightful commentary and original reporting, curated and written specifically for the new generation of independent and conservative thinkers.
Read more »
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes AI safety bill opposed by Silicon ValleyGov. Gavin Newsom vetoed AI safety bill SB-1047, which was opposed by tech companies including ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Facebook parent company Meta.
Read more »
California Gov. Newsom vetoes AI safety bill that divided Silicon ValleyThe measure, known as SB 1047, was one of the nation’s most far-reaching regulations on the booming AI industry. It would have held AI companies legally liable for harms caused by AI and enabled a 'kill switch' if systems went rogue.
Read more »
Vice Presidential Debate: How Silicon Valley and other Californians may see a Vance-Walz matchupVP debates have rarely made a smidgen of difference on election day, but with the race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump exceptionally tight, there’s a chance this year could be different.
Read more »
Silicon Valley has a plan to save humanity: Just flip on the nuclear reactorsAI hasn’t quite delivered the job-killing, cancer-curing utopia that the technology’s evangelists are peddling. So far, artificial intelligence has proven more capable of generating stock market enthusiasm than, like, tangibly great things for humanity. Unless you count Shrimp Jesus.
Read more »