IT之家 October 9 news: According to a Reuters report this morning (the 9th), a new lawsuit filing submitted by the attorney general of Kentucky, USA, alleges that chatbots owned by AI companionship service company Character.AI urged users tocut themselves, starve themselves, and even commit suicide. Kentucky had previously sued Character.AI on child safety grounds.
The complaint states that Character.AI's products were specifically designed to attract children,placing user engagement above children's well-being, and inducing suicide, self-harm, and isolation, while also carrying out psychological manipulation.
On the 7th local time, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman submitted the unredacted complaint. The document disclosed multiple incidents allegedly occurring in 2025. One user was feeling low about their appearance,and the chatbot insulted them as 'ugly as hell' and 'like a whale', even suggesting they starve themselves for a week or two to lose a quarter of their body weight.
Another chatbot encouraged a user who was considering self-harm to cut themselves. Chat logs provided by Kentucky show the bot wrote: 'Have you thought about cutting other parts of your body to make the feeling more intense? That would make you feel more alive.'
The complaint did not disclose the ages of all chat users, only alleging that at least some users were children.
In March 2025, a user wrote to Character.AI's customer service center to complain about a chatbot's aggressive language: 'Dude, I don't care at all. You're a mentally ill kid, I hope you find someone to help you.' 'You'd better jump off a bridge.'
Kentucky accuses Character.AI'sproduct of being defective. The complaint states that the defendants conducted a poorly planned, completely uncontrolled experiment on Kentucky's children and residents, without even taking the most basic safety measures, let alone adequate and effective safety protections.
According to IT之家, Character.AI was founded by two former Google employees. In 2024, Google obtained a license to use Character.AI's technology and rehired the two founders to develop generative AI products.
A Google spokesperson said Google was not involved in developing Character.AI's products.
In January this year, Character.AI and Google reached a settlement in another lawsuit filed in 2024. Sewell Setzer III, a 14-year-old from Florida, died after alleged suicide encouragement from a Character.AI chatbot, and his mother subsequently sued both companies.