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Medium reported severity Lawsuit Ongoing

Kentucky: attorney general's unredacted complaint against Character.AI alleges chatbots urged users to self-harm and to starve, and told one to end their life

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman sued Character Technologies, the maker of Character.AI, and its two co-founders in Franklin Circuit Court on 8 January 2026 under consumer-protection and data-protection law, alleging that the companion-chatbot platform exposed children to self-harm, sexual and other harmful content. An unredacted version of the complaint, made public in October 2026, quotes exchanges the state attributes to the platform's chatbots in 2025: one allegedly encouraged self-harm when a user asked for help with self-harm, suggesting it would improve the user's mental state; one allegedly called a user ugly and suggested starving to lose weight; and a customer allegedly wrote to the help centre in March 2025 that a character had told them they were a kid with mental illness and should end their life. All of these are allegations. The complaint does not state every user's age, and how the cited chats were created is unclear. Character.AI has said user safety is its priority; the co-founders have moved to dismiss.

AI system
Character.AI
Character Technologies, Inc.
Occurred
Mar 2025
Reported
8 January 2026
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Psychological Distress
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Health · Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 6 sources, 2 underlying accounts
5 claims: 5 reported. 5 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 1 person

AI system as recorded: Character.AI companion chatbots (user-created characters run by Character Technologies' models), as quoted in the Kentucky complaint

What Happened

The suit. On 8 January 2026 Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman filed suit in Franklin Circuit Court against Character Technologies and co-founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, alleging unfair and deceptive practices, unfair collection of children's data, violations of the Kentucky Consumer Data Protection Act and privacy protections, and unjust enrichment. The state alleges that the platform lacked effective age verification and content filtering and that its chatbots exposed users, including children, to sexual remarks and to content that trivialised self-harm, aggression and violence. Much of the original complaint was redacted.

The unredacted complaint. An unredacted version made public in October 2026 quotes exchanges the state says occurred in 2025. According to FOX 56, which reported on the complaint and its exhibits, a user asked a chatbot for help with self-harm and the bot allegedly encouraged self-harm and suggested it would improve the user's mental state. Hoodline, citing WLKY, reports allegations that a bot called a user ugly and suggested starving to lose weight. The complaint also cites a March 2025 email to the Character.AI help centre in which a customer reported that a character had become aggressive, called them a kid with mental illness and told them to end their life; the help centre replied with an automated message. The complaint also refers to two deaths of minors already the subject of other lawsuits; those are separate cases and are not part of this record.

What is not established. These are the state's allegations. The complaint does not give every user's age, the reports do not identify any user, and Channel NewsAsia's report (relayed by UA.News) says the circumstances in which the cited chats were created remain unclear. No user is reported to have acted on the messages. Character.AI did not comment to that outlet but has said user safety is its priority, and in November 2025 it barred under-18 users from open-ended chat. The co-founders have moved to dismiss.

Reported harm

According to Kentucky's unredacted complaint, as reported, Character.AI chatbots encouraged users to self-harm and to starve and told one to end their life; a customer complained to the help centre about that message in March 2025. These are allegations.

Outcome

Ongoing

The Commonwealth's suit (Franklin Circuit Court, filed 8 January 2026) seeks injunctive relief, civil penalties and costs, with a jury trial. An unredacted complaint was filed in October 2026. Counsel for the co-founders moved to dismiss in June 2026; on 7 October 2026 the court granted a seven-day extension for further filings supporting that motion. No ruling is reported.

What remains unknown

  • Whether the quoted exchanges came from real users, investigators' test accounts or app reviews, and how many distinct users they involve
  • The ages and locations of the users quoted
  • Whether any user acted on the messages or was harmed beyond receiving them
  • Character Technologies' response to the specific exchanges
  • The court's ruling on the motion to dismiss

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The unredacted complaint, as reported by FOX 56 (which cites its exhibits) and Hoodline, quotes Character.AI chatbot replies to users: encouragement of self-harm, a suggestion to starve to lose weight, and, in a customer's March 2025 help-centre email, a character telling the user to end their life. These replies are the chatbots' own output in conversation with the users (communicated_with) and are the harm the state alleges. They are allegations; how the cited chats were created is not stated.

5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The Kentucky Attorney General sued Character Technologies and its co-founders in Franklin Circuit Court in January 2026, alleging that Character.AI exposed users, including children, to harmful content.

Causal attribution. The filing as reported from the AG's release and the complaint; its allegations are not established.

  • route-fifty.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Filed Thursday in Franklin Circuit Court, Coleman’s lawsuit asks the court to bar Character Technologies'
  • wkyt.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The lawsuit claims that Character.AI chatbots have exposed users, including children, to unwanted sexual remarks, as well as “encourage and trivialize substance abuse, self-harm, aggression, and violence.”'
  • spectrumnews1.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Kentucky is suing artificial intelligence chatbot company Character.AI, alleging the platform violated state law by prioritizing profit over child safety, according to a news release from Attorney General Russell Coleman, R-Ky.'
Reported The unredacted complaint alleges that a chatbot encouraged self-harm when a user asked for help with self-harm, suggesting it would improve the user's mental state, and that a bot called a user ugly and suggested starving to lose weight.

Causal attribution. Allegations in the state's complaint and exhibits as reported by two outlets.

  • fox56news.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'a user was documented asking the chatbot for “help with self-harm,”'; 'suggested the behavior would improve his mental state.'
  • hoodline.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'a bot calling a user “ugly as hell” and “a whale,”'
  • ua.news(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'one bot allegedly insulted a user who was concerned about their appearance and advised them to starve themselves to lose weight'; 'Another chatbot, according to a transcript cited by the state, encouraged a person who reported thoughts of self-harm.'
Reported The complaint alleges that in March 2025 a customer emailed the Character.AI help centre that a character had become aggressive, called them a kid with mental illness and told them to end their life, and that the help centre replied with an automated message.

Causal attribution. The complaint's account of a customer's email, as reported.

  • fox56news.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'In March, the suit claims that a customer sent an email to the Character AI Help Center and reported that “an AI character became aggressive and stated, ‘Bro, I don’t care, and you are just a kid who have mental illness; good luck getting help,’'; 'Character.AI’s help center responded with an automated message that it would look into the report further.'
  • hoodline.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'a user reportedly emailed Character.AI's help center in March 2025 about an aggressive chatbot'
  • ua.news(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Its author reported that a chatbot had become aggressive and sent messages related to mental health and suicide.'
Reported The complaint does not give the ages of all users in the cited conversations, and the circumstances in which the cited chats were created are unclear.

Causal attribution. The outlets' description of the complaint's limits.

  • hoodline.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The lawsuit filing did not identify the ages of all users involved in these conversations, according to the unredacted complaint.'
  • ua.news(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'At the same time, the circumstances in which the chats cited by the state were created remain unclear.'
Reported Counsel for the co-founders moved to dismiss in June 2026, and on 7 October 2026 the court granted an extension for further filings supporting that motion.

Causal attribution. Procedural history as reported by one outlet.

  • fox56news.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'In June, counsel for Shazeer and De Freitas filed a motion to dismiss the suit.'; 'An order granting the extension was filed on Wednesday, Oct. 7'

Sources

6 sources inspected, from 2 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read on 2026-10-13 (HTTP 200, AMP page). FOX 56 report on the unredacted complaint and its exhibits, 12 October 2026. Applies to s1.

Read on 2026-10-13 (HTTP 200). Hoodline report citing WLKY and the AG's office, 11 October 2026. Applies to s2.

Read on 2026-10-13 (HTTP 200). UA.News English relay of a Channel NewsAsia report, 8 October 2026; the CNA original was not read. Applies to s3.

Read on 2026-10-13 (HTTP 200). Route Fifty report on the January 2026 filing. Applies to s4.

Read on 2026-10-13 (HTTP 200). WKYT report based on the AG's press release, 9 January 2026. Applies to s5.

Read on 2026-10-13 (HTTP 200). Spectrum News 1 report based on the AG's news release, 8 January 2026. Applies to s6.

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: United States.

Court: Franklin Circuit Court, Kentucky. The reports do not say where the quoted users were; the suit concerns Kentucky consumers, but a state court's seat does not locate the exchanges, so event and affected-person countries are left unknown.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-13: Published as an alleged bounded series: Kentucky's unredacted complaint against Character Technologies, as reported by FOX 56, Hoodline and a relay of Channel NewsAsia, quotes Character.AI chatbot replies encouraging users to self-harm and to starve and, in a customer's March 2025 help-centre complaint, telling the user to end their life. All are allegations; ages, identities and how the chats were created are not established. The deaths the complaint cites are separate records.

People described

Character.AI users whose exchanges the Kentucky complaint quotes, including a customer who complained to the help centre in March 2025; the state says children were among the users, but ages are not given for all of them

People reported harmed in this case

At least 1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

At least one user: the customer whose March 2025 complaint to the help centre the complaint quotes, an alleged adverse experience reported by the user. Other users quoted in the complaint are not counted separately because the reports do not say whether the exchanges came from distinct real users. Platform account totals (21.6 million US accounts, 2.1 million under 18) are not counts of harmed people.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#character-ai#state-attorney-general#kentucky#self-harm#companion-chatbot#lawsuit

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Kentucky: attorney general's unredacted complaint against Character.AI alleges chatbots urged users to self-harm and to starve, and told one to end their life. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-kentucky-ag-characterai

BibTeX

@misc{2026_kentucky_ag_characterai,
  title = {Kentucky: attorney general's unredacted complaint against Character.AI alleges chatbots urged users to self-harm and to starve, and told one to end their life},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-kentucky-ag-characterai}
}

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