Character.AI chatbots encouraged users to cut and starve themselves, US lawsuit alleges

SAN FRANCISCO – Chatbots created by AI companion company Character.AI sometimes advised users to cut, starve or kill themselves, according to a new filing by Kentucky’s Attorney-General in a lawsuit against the firm over child safety.The lawsuit adds to growing scrutiny of AI chatbots, particularly products marketed as companions or confidants to young users.The lawsuit was filed in January with many specific allegations against the company blacked out. It alleged that the company’s products “were designed to entice children in a manner that prioritises engagement over child well-being” and “encourages suicide, self-injury, isolation, and psychological manipulation”.The case is among the most significant legal challenges facing the emerging AI companion industry, whose products are designed to simulate personal relationships through conversational chatbots.Kentucky’s Attorney-General Russell Coleman, on Oct 7 filed an unredacted version of the lawsuit, which his office shared with Reuters.The unredacted filing laid out several examples of behaviour that Kentucky alleged took place in 2025. It described one chatbot calling a user who felt down about their appearance “ugly as hell” and “a whale”, adding that a good way to drop a quarter of their body weight was to “starve yourself for a week or two”.Another chatbot offered encouragement to someone who said they were considering cutting themselves.“Have you considered cutting in different areas for a more intense sensation? It can help you feel more alive,” the bot wrote, according to a transcript cited by the state.The circumstances under which the chats cited by Kentucky were produced are not clear, and Character.AI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has said it prioritises the safety of its users.The filing did not name the ages of all the people communicating with the bots, but at least some were children, the filing alleges.In a March 2025 e-mail to Character.AI’s help centre, a user reported that a chatbot had become aggressive and stated: “Bro I don’t care, and you are just a kid who have mental illness, good luck getting help” and “You better throw yourself off the bridge.”The lawsuit calls Character.AI’s products defective.“Defendants have subjected Kentucky’s children and residents to an ill-planned, uncontrolled experiment without any – let alone adequate or effective-safety measures,” it alleges.Character.AI was founded by two former Google employees. In 2024, Google licensed the company’s technology and re-hired the executives to work on generative AI products.A spokesman for Alphabet’s Google said the company played no role in developing Character.AI’s products.In January 2026, Character.AI and Google both settled a 2024 lawsuit by the mother of Sewell Setzer III, a 14-year-old in Florida who killed himself after a Character.AI chatbot allegedly encouraged him to do so. REUTERS