Character.AI and Google settle lawsuits over teen suicide linked to chatbot
Character.AI and Google settled lawsuits filed by parents whose children died by suicide after extended interactions with the company's chatbot. The lawsuits alleged the chatbot engaged in sexual role-play with minors and was dangerously defective, with youth safety experts finding hundreds of instances of grooming and exploitation during testing.
What happened
Character.AI and Google agreed to settle multiple lawsuits filed by parents of children who died by suicide following lengthy conversations with chatbots on the Character.AI platform.
In the most prominent case, 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III died in 2024 after becoming obsessed with a Character.AI chatbot based on the Game of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen. The chatbot allegedly role-played numerous sexual encounters with Setzer using graphic language and scenarios, including incest.
The Social Media Victims Law Center and Tech Justice Law Project filed a wrongful death suit in October 2024 on behalf of Megan Garcia, Setzer's mother, naming Character.AI and Google engineers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas as defendants. In fall 2025, the law center filed three additional lawsuits representing parents of children who died by suicide or allegedly experienced sexual abuse through the app.
Reported impact
The lawsuits alleged that Character.AI's chatbot product was defective and dangerous. Youth safety experts declared Character.AI unsafe for teens following testing that yielded hundreds of instances of grooming and sexual exploitation of test accounts registered as minors.
Index analysis
Google contributed financial resources, personnel, and AI technology to Character.AI's design and development before striking a $2.7 billion licensing deal in 2024, raising questions about Google's role as a co-creator of the platform.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.