{"id":650868,"date":"2025-01-25T14:25:33","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T11:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/in-motion-to-dismiss-chatbot-platform-character-ai-claims-it-is-protected-by-the-first-amendment\/"},"modified":"2025-01-25T14:25:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T11:25:33","slug":"in-motion-to-dismiss-chatbot-platform-character-ai-claims-it-is-protected-by-the-first-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/in-motion-to-dismiss-chatbot-platform-character-ai-claims-it-is-protected-by-the-first-amendment\/","title":{"rendered":"#In motion to dismiss, chatbot platform Character AI claims it is protected by the First Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Character AI, a platform that lets users engage in roleplay with AI chatbots, has filed a motion to dismiss<\/a> a case brought against it by the parent of a teen who committed suicide, allegedly after becoming hooked on the company\u2019s technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In October, Megan Garcia filed a lawsuit against Character AI in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division, over the death of her son, Sewell Setzer III. According to Garcia, her 14-year-old son developed an emotional attachment to a chatbot on Character AI, \u201cDany,\u201d which he texted constantly \u2014 to the point where he began to pull away from the real world.<\/p>\n

Following Setzer\u2019s death, Character AI\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0it would roll out a number of new safety features, including improved detection, response, and intervention related to chats that violate its terms of service. But Garcia is fighting for additional guardrails, including changes that might result in chatbots on Character AI losing their ability to tell stories and personal anecdotes.<\/p>\n

In the motion to dismiss, counsel for Character AI asserts the platform is protected against liability by the First Amendment, just as computer code is<\/a>. The motion may not persuade a judge, and Character AI\u2019s legal justifications may change as the case proceeds. But the motion possibly hints at early elements of Character AI\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe First Amendment prohibits tort liability against media<\/a> and technology companies arising from allegedly harmful speech, including speech allegedly resulting in suicide,\u201d the filing reads. \u201cThe only difference between this case and those that have come before is that some of the speech here involves AI. But the context of the expressive speech \u2014 whether a conversation with an AI chatbot or an interaction with a video game<\/a> character \u2014 does not change the First Amendment analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be clear, Character AI\u2019s counsel isn\u2019t asserting the company\u2019s First Amendment rights. Rather, the motion argues that Character AI\u2019s users<\/em> would have their First Amendment rights violated should the lawsuit against the platform succeed. <\/p>\n

The motion doesn\u2019t address whether Character AI might be held harmless under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the federal safe-harbor law that protects social media and other online platforms from liability for third-party content. The law\u2019s authors have implied<\/a> that Section 230 doesn\u2019t protect output from AI like Character AI\u2019s chatbots, but it\u2019s far from a settled legal matter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Counsel for Character AI also claims that Garcia\u2019s real intention is to \u201cshut down\u201d Character AI and prompt legislation regulating technologies like it. Should the plaintiffs be successful, it would have a \u201cchilling effect\u201d on both Character AI and the entire nascent generative AI industry, counsel for the platform says. <\/p>\n

\u201cApart from counsel\u2019s stated intention to \u2018shut down\u2019 Character AI, [their complaint] seeks drastic changes that would materially limit the nature and volume of speech on the platform,\u201d the filing reads. \u201cThese changes would radically restrict the ability of Character AI\u2019s millions of users to generate and participate in conversations with characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, which also names Character AI corporate benefactor Alphabet as a defendant, is but one of several lawsuits that Character AI is facing relating to how minors interact with the AI-generated content on its platform. Other suits allege that Character AI exposed\u00a0a 9-year-old to \u201chypersexualized content\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and promoted self-harm to\u00a0a 17-year-old user<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In December, Texas Attorney General<\/a>\u00a0Ken Paxton announced he was launching an investigation<\/a> into\u00a0Character AI\u00a0and 14 other tech firms over alleged violations of the state\u2019s online privacy and safety laws for children. \u201cThese investigations are a critical step toward ensuring that social media and AI companies comply with our laws designed to protect children from exploitation and harm,\u201d said Paxton in a press release.<\/p>\n

Character AI is part of a\u00a0booming\u00a0industry\u00a0of\u00a0AI\u00a0companionship\u00a0app<\/a>s\u00a0\u2014 the mental health effects of which are largely unstudied. Some experts have expressed concerns<\/a> that these apps could exacerbate feelings of loneliness and anxiety.<\/p>\n

Character AI, which was founded in 2021 by Google AI researcher Noam Shazeer, and which Google reportedly paid $2.7 billion to \u201creverse acquihire<\/a>,\u201d has claimed that it continues to take steps to improve safety and moderation. In December, the company rolled out new safety tools, a separate AI model for teens, blocks on sensitive content, and more prominent disclaimers notifying users that its AI characters are not real people.<\/p>\n

Character AI has gone through a number of personnel changes after\u00a0Shazeer and the company\u2019s other co-founder, Daniel De Freitas, left for Google. The platform hired\u00a0a former YouTube exec, Erin Teague, as chief product officer, and named Dominic Perella, who was Character AI\u2019s general counsel, interim CEO.<\/p>\n

Character AI recently began testing games on the web in an effort to boost user engagement and retention.<\/p>\n

TechCrunch has an AI-focused news<\/a>letter!\u00a0Sign up here\u00a0to get it in your inbox every Wednesday.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Character AI, a platform that lets users engage in roleplay with AI chatbots, has filed a motion to dismiss a case brought against it by the parent of a teen who committed suicide, allegedly after becoming hooked on the company\u2019s technology. In October, Megan Garcia filed a lawsuit against Character AI in the U.S. District…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":650869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/GettyImages-1499457607.jpg?resize=1200,675","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[77337,153877,5055,153878,72435,153879,147146,72226,153880],"class_list":["post-650868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-ai","tag-ai-companion-apps","tag-apps","tag-character-ai","tag-chatbot","tag-filing","tag-generative-ai","tag-lawsuit","tag-motion-to-dismiss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}