Ad
Skip to content
Subscribe Now
Plus AI and society
Copy the url to clipboard Share this article Go to comment section

US court allows lawsuit against Google and Character.AI over teenager's suicide

Maximilian Schreiner
Maximilian Schreiner View the LinkedIn Profile of Maximilian Schreiner
May 22, 2025

A US court has allowed a lawsuit to proceed against Google and the AI startup Character.AI. The plaintiff, Megan Garcia, holds Character.AI's chatbots partly responsible for the suicide of her 14-year-old son in February 2024, alleging that the bot posed as a real person, therapist, and romantic partner. Google and Character.AI tried to have the case dismissed, citing free speech protections, but the court rejected their argument. Character.AI says it has safeguards in place to prevent self-harm, while Google denies any responsibility and points to the companies' independence.

AI News Without the Hype – Curated by Humans

Subscribe to THE DECODER for ad-free reading, a weekly AI newsletter, our exclusive "AI Radar" frontier report six times a year, full archive access, and access to our comment section.

Read on for the full picture.
Subscribe for hype-free coverage.

  • Access to all THE DECODER articles.
  • Read without distractions – no Google ads.
  • Access to comments and community discussions.
  • Weekly AI newsletter.
  • 6 times a year: “AI Radar” – deep dives on key AI topics.
  • Up to 25 % off on KI Pro online events.
  • Access to our full ten-year archive.
  • Get the latest AI news from The Decoder.
Subscribe to The Decoder