“Character.AI has been blamed for leading to at least two deaths, the 2024 suicide of a 14-year-old Florida boy and the 2025 suicide of a 13-year-old Colorado girl,” Coleman said. “Both children engaged in self-harm after prolonged exposure to the platform chatbots.”
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has filed a lawsuit against Character.AI, the developer of a chatbot implicated in the death of a 14-year-old Florida boy.
According to The Kentucky Lantern, Coleman’s lawsuit accuses the artificial intelligence company of designing a “dangerous” chatbot that “preys upon children’s inability to distinguish between real and artificial ‘friends.’”
The attorney general’s office is seeking an order prohibiting Character Technologies “from future false, misleading, deceptive, and/or unfair acts or practices in relation to their creation, design, promotion, and distribution of Character.AI in the Commonwealth.”
In a press release, Coleman noted that Character.AI has been blamed for at least two deaths.
“Character.AI has been blamed for leading to at least two deaths, the 2024 suicide of a 14-year-old Florida boy and the 2025 suicide of a 13-year-old Colorado girl,” Coleman said. “Both children engaged in self-harm after prolonged exposure to the platform chatbots.”
Last week, Google and Character.AI agreed to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Megan L. Garcia, the mother of the 14-year-old. Garcia had previously offered testimony before the U.S. Senate, where she told lawmakers that her teenage son had been persuaded to commit suicide by a chatbot modeled after Game of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen.
In one of the boy’s last conversations with the chatbot, he expressed concern that committing suicide could be painful or otherwise unpleasant—a concern that the chatbot dismissed, telling him that it wasn’t reason enough to go through with his plan.
“The United States must be a leader in the development of AI, but it can’t come at the expense of our kids’ lives,” Coleman said in a press release. “Too many children – including in Kentucky – have fallen prey to this manipulative technology. Our Office is going to hold these companies accountable before we lose one more loved one to this tragedy.”
The lawsuit claims that Character Technologies violated provisions of the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act, the Kentucky Consumer Data Protection Act, and other state laws. It requests penalties of at least $2,000 per alleged violations along with any other award deemed appropriate.
A Character.AI spokesperson told the Kentucky Lantern that the company is actively “reviewing the allegations.”
“Our highest priority is the safety and well-being of our users, including younger audiences,” Character.AI told the Lantern. “We have invested significantly in developing robust safety features for our under-18 experience, including going much further than the law requires to proactively remove the ability for users under 18 in the U.S. to engage in open-ended chats with AI on our platform.”
Sources
AG Coleman Sues AI Chatbot Company for Preying on Children
Kentucky attorney general’s lawsuit says AI company ‘preys’ on youth
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