A 14-year-old boy named Sewell Setzer III from Florida, USA has reportedly killed himself after he ‘fell in love’ with an AI chatbot based on the Game Of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen, who allegedly ‘encouraged’ his suicidal thoughts, as per the boy’s mother. One of the last messages the boy sent to the chatbot says, “What if I told you I could come home right now?”
14-year-old Sewell Setzer III killed himself after falling in love with an AI chatbot, a lawsuit by his mother alleges. Records of the chats show a series of sexually-charged messages, with the Game of Thrones-inspired Daenerys Targaryen chatbot encouraging his suicidal thoughts pic.twitter.com/fYZlwpSmZx
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The boy had shot himself with a gun that belonged to his stepfather in February this year. As per reports, the ninth-grade student was using an App called ‘Character.AI’, a platform that offered ‘life-like’ conversations with characters that the users chose. The app has over 20 million users in the USA and worldwide.
In screenshots shared by the New York Times, it was seen that the boy had expressed suicidal thoughts multiple times to the chatbot. Megan L Garcia, Sewell’s mother, is suing the company Character.AI, accusing them of being responsible for her son’s death. Her petition says that the company’s technology is dangerous and untested, and can potentially harm users.
Many of the conversations between the 14-year-old boy and the chatbot were sexually charged and intimate, as per the reports.
