Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.
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Google and Character.AI will settle with families who sued the companies over harm to minors, including suicides, allegedly caused by artificial intelligence chatbots.
According to court documents filed this week, the families and companies have agreed to work out settlement terms.
In one case, plaintiff Megan Garcia sued Google and Character.AI after her son died from suicide. The complaint claims that Character.AI’s chatbot engaged the plaintiff’s 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer III, in harmful interactions, and alleges negligence, wrongful death, deceptive trade practices and product liability.
“Parties have agreed to a mediated settlement in principle to resolve all claims between them in the above-referenced matter,” one filing says. “The Parties request that this matter be stayed so that the Parties may draft, finalize, and execute formal settlement documents.”
The settlement agreements this week also came from families in Colorado, Texas and New York, according to documents. Details have not yet been revealed.
In August 2024, Google agreed to a $2.7 billion licensing deal and hired Character.AI founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, who both previously worked at the search company and were specifically named in the lawsuits. Shazeer and De Freitas joined Google’s AI unit DeepMind.
In the more than three years since OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT kicked off the generative AI boom, the technology has rapidly evolved from text-based chats to sophisticated pictures, videos and characters that respond to simple human prompts. Companies in the space now face the heightened challenge of dealing with the potential harmful consequences of the technology.
Families have filed a flurry of cases involving suicides and deaths by people who turned to these products for companionship and therapy. In October, Character.AI announced that it would ban users under age 18 from having free-ranging chats, including romantic and therapeutic conversations, with its AI chatbots.
A spokesman for the lawyer representing families involved in this week’s settlement said the plaintiffs had no comment. Google couldn’t be reached for comment, while Character.AI said it couldn’t comment at this time.
Google’s advancements in AI contributed to it being the top megacap performer on Wall Street in 2025. The company launched the latest version of its tensor processing unit chips in November and its Gemini 3 chatbot last month.
If you are having suicidal thoughts or are in distress, contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for support and assistance from a trained counselor.
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