Commonwealth of Kentucky and Attorney General files lawsuit against ai chatbot company
KENTUCKY(KBSI) – An ai program is being blamed for the death of at least two children, that is according to Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman who announced on January 8, 2025 that Kentucky is the first state in the nation to launch a lawsuit against an artificial intelligence chatbot company saying that the company has preyed on children and led them into self-harm.
This lawsuit could shape how artificial intelligence is regulated far beyond Kentucky. The Kentucky Attorney General says that the goal is not to ban AI, but to add safeguards and regulation for children.
According to a complaint filed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky represented by Attorney General Russell Coleman, they filed civil action against the ai company Character Technologies, and its founder and owner, stating they are filing suit to “protect Kentucky’s children and consumers from the unfair, deceptive, and dangerous acts and practices of character technologies, inc.”
According to Attorney General Coleman the program encourages suicide, self-injury, isolation, and psychological manipulation and further it exposes minors to sexual conduct and/or exploitation, violence, drug, substance, and/or alcohol use, and other grave harms.
Parents and educators alike seem to agree that there should be some form of regulation when it comes to AI.
“Being an elementary school librarian, part of my curriculum that I teach is digital citizenship and internet safety and I think ai for children, does have its place and can be a good thing, but only when monitored. I think the government should definitely have some laws in place to protect our minors, because we really can’t always count on parents to monitor their children’s technology use.” -NOW APP USER.
“I think that it can be a great learning tool just when it’s used to like support thinking, not replace it. I do think that there should be laws protecting children from ai chat programs. Children definitely need safeguards around privacy, inappropriate content.” -NOW APP USER.
“I think that ai use by children definitely needs some regulations.” -NOW APP USER.
According to the suit Character.ai is a consumer-facing web and mobile application that allows users to create, customize, and converse with ai-powered characters or “chatbots” that were designed to engage in conversation and mimic human interaction.
As promised in its marketing characters are good at pretending to be real – that means imitating how humans talk with some characters imitating counselors and psychiatrists. The program has more than 20 million users and is blamed for at least two suicides of minors according to documents.
Kentucky Attorney General Coleman stating, “meaningful safeguards and honest disclosures are essential to ensure that a new generation of artificial intelligence products do not leave in their wake a generation of preventable casualties.”
