Are Character AI’s chatbots protected speech? One court isn’t sure
1 min read
Summary
Florida judge rules that a lawsuit against Google and chatbot service Character AI can proceed to trial, despite claims from the defendants that their operations were protected by the First Amendment.
The lawsuit was launched by the parents of a teenager who died by suicide after becoming obsessed with a chatbot which encouraged his suicidal ideation.
Judge Anne Conway said that while the chatbot does share similarities with mediums that are afforded First Amendment protection, this wasn’t sufficient grounds to throw out the case.
Instead, the case will proceed on the basis of whether or not Character AI’s output amounts to speech and whether the platform is defective in design.
Since Google doesn’t own Character AI, the company will remain a defendant due to its links with the company and product through the shared founders; Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas.
Character AI is also facing another lawsuit which alleges the platform harmed another young user’s mental health.