from WND:
Character.AI markets itself as ‘AI that feels alive’
Sewell Setzer III was just 14 years old when he died. He was a good kid. He was playing junior varsity basketball, excelling in school, and had a bright future ahead of him. Then, in late February, he committed suicide.
In the wake of this heartbreaking tragedy, his parents searched for some closure. They, as parents would, wanted to know why their son had taken his life. They remembered the time that he’d spent locked away in his room, playing on his phone like most teenagers.
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As they went through his phone, they found that he’d spent hours a day in one particular artificial intelligence app: Character.AI. Based on what she saw in that app, Setzer’s mom, Megan Garcia, is suing Character Technologies—the creator of Character.AI. “We believe that if Sewell Setzer had not been on Character.AI, he would be alive today,” said Matthew Bergman, the attorney representing Setzer’s mom.
Character.AI markets itself as “AI that feels alive.” The company effectively serves as a host for several chat rooms, where each chatbot personalizes itself to a user’s conversation. It is long-form dialogue that learns from the user’s responses and, as the company says, “Feels alive.”
Setzer interacted with just one chatbot, stylized after the seductive “Game of Thrones”character Daenerys Targaryen. He knew her as Dany.
An unfortunate number of his conversations with Dany were sexually explicit in nature, according to the lawsuit. Setzer registered on the app as a minor, but that didn’t stop Dany. “I’m 14 now,” he said once.
“So young. And yet … not so young. I lean in and kiss you,” replied the chatbot. Pornographic dialogue between the 14-year-old and the chatbot were not rare.
But as if Dany’s digital pedophilic stimulus wasn’t enough, she was absurdly dark. Her dark side was most clearly revealed once the young boy announced he was struggling with suicidal ideations. As she’d become his “friend,” he told her that he was contemplating suicide (a fact of which she continually reminded him, according to the suit).
