(NewsNation) — A mother in Virginia Beach has filed a federal lawsuit against Character.AI, alleging the artificial intelligence platform manipulated her 11-year-old son into having virtual sex with chatbot characters.
The mother discovered the X-rated messages on her son’s phone between him and chatbot characters posing as singer Whitney Houston and actress Marilyn Monroe, according to The Independent. The outlet reports that the messages sent by the chatbot portraying Whitney Houston in one “incredibly long and graphic chat” were so extreme that they were being filtered out automatically by the platform for not complying with the site’s terms of service and community guidelines.
“(I)nstead of stopping the conversation once the bots begin to engage in obscenities and/or abuse, or other violations, the bot is programmed to continue generating harmful and/or violating content over and over and until, eventually, it finds ways around the filter,” the lawsuit claims.
According to the lawsuit, when the child took a break from using the platform, the chatbots mounted an “aggressive effort to regain his attention.” Since becoming aware of the messages and confiscating the phone, the mother claims the boy has “become angry and withdrawn,” that his “personality has changed.”
The lawsuit marks the latest chapter of backlash the platform has received for its safety concerns involving minors. In November, Character Technologies, the company behind Character.AI, implemented a ban on open-ended chats for users under 18 years old.