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.
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…
