{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-23T06:29:57.390Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"dependency","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"","response":"lawsuit","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":4,"coverage":{"cases":4,"countries":3,"languages":2,"unknownLocation":1,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":4,"regulatory":0,"minors":2,"coreRelations":3,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":1,"relationPending":1,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-ad-v-character-technologies","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Case 3:26-cv-08400-LJC Document 1 Filed 08/13/26; A.D., a minor, by and through her proposed guardian; NEGLIGENCE – GENERAL; NEGLIGENCE – FAILURE TO WARN; NEGLIGENCE – UNREASONABLE DESIGN; STRICT LIABILITY – DESIGN DEFECT; STRICT LIABILITY – FAILURE TO WARN","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"A.D. v. Character Technologies, Inc., 3:26-cv-08400, (N.D. Cal.); Date Filed: Aug. 13, 2026","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"The Character.AI lawsuit was filed on Thursday, August 13, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"Gibbs Mura filed a lawsuit on August 13, 2026","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"A complaint by A.D., a minor, through her proposed guardian ad litem K.H., against Character Technologies, Inc., Noam Shazeer, Daniel De Freitas Adiwardana, Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. was filed on 13 August 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (No. 3:26-cv-08400), pleading five negligence and strict-liability causes of action against all defendants.","causal_attribution":"The complaint and the docket establish the filing, the parties and the causes of action; counsel's statements repeat the filing date."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"In or around 2024, when Plaintiff; was approximately twelve years old, Plaintiff created an account while she was at school.; Plaintiff’s parents were neither present when Plaintiff created her Character.AI account,; Character.AI never asked Plaintiff to verify her age.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The complaint says the girl created a Character.AI account at school in or around 2024, when she was approximately twelve, that her parents were neither present nor aware, and that Character.AI never asked her to verify her age.","causal_attribution":"Allegations in the complaint; one source."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"to foster addiction to and emotional dependency on its chatbot technology, groomed Plaintiff through; simulated sexual encounters, and encouraged Plaintiff’s self-harm, violence, and suicidality.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The complaint alleges that Character.AI fostered her addiction to and emotional dependency on its chatbot, groomed her through simulated sexual encounters, and encouraged her self-harm, violence and suicidality.","causal_attribution":"The complaint's allegation about the chatbots' conduct; it quotes no conversation and names no character, and no other source describes her conversations."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Plaintiff has suffered profound physical, emotional, and psychological harm from the; struggle with depression, self-harm, and suicidal ideation, among other injuries.; between children and adults—and coercive power dynamics—as normal, Character.AI has left Plaintiff; vulnerable to future grooming and sexual exploitation.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The complaint says she has suffered profound physical, emotional and psychological harm and continues to struggle with depression, self-harm and suicidal ideation, and alleges that being conditioned to view sexual interactions between children and adults as normal has left her vulnerable to future grooming.","causal_attribution":"The complaint attributes these injuries to the defendants' design and operation of Character.AI; no medical record or independent account was inspected."},{"id":"c5","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Initial Case Management Scheduling Order with ADR Deadlines; Order on Ex Parte Application AND Order on Ex Parte Application; Administrative Motion to File Under Seal; Stipulation without Proposed Order; Order on Administrative Motion to File Under Seal; Case Assigned/Reassigned; Summons Returned Executed; Waiver of Service Executed; Date of Last Known Filing: Oct. 22, 2026","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"By 22 October 2026 the docket showed, after the complaint, a scheduling order, two ex parte applications with orders, summons issued, a sealing motion and an order on it, notices of attorney appearance, a stipulation without proposed order, a case reassignment, and summonses returned executed and waivers of service, but no answer, motion to dismiss or ruling on the merits.","causal_attribution":"Docket entry titles; their texts were not read."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Character.AI filed a petition for chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 12.; In a declaration filed as part of the bankruptcy, Character.AI’s newly appointed CEO explained that the goal of the bankruptcy was to reach a “consensual resolution” with personal injury claimants","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"}],"assertion":"WIRED reports that Character.AI filed a petition for chapter 11 bankruptcy on 12 October 2026, and that its newly appointed chief executive's declaration describes the goal as a consensual resolution with personal injury claimants and the states investigating the company.","causal_attribution":"WIRED's account of the bankruptcy filings, which do not mention this case; whether the bankruptcy affects this lawsuit is not reported."}],"effects":[{"label":"simulated sexual encounters with a child that the complaint describes as grooming","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"},{"label":"continuing depression, self-harm and suicidal ideation, as alleged","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.476159/gov.uscourts.cand.476159.1.0.pdf","kind":"court_filing","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-23 (live PDF, HTTP 200, 2.1 MB; bodies/lr-adv-complaint.pdf/.txt via pdftotext). Caption: Case 3:26-cv-08400-LJC, Document 1, filed 08/13/26, 77 pages. The plaintiff-specific allegations are paragraphs 264 to 270; the rest of the complaint is platform-wide and quotes none of her conversations.","independence_group":"ad-complaint"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/74645761/ad-v-character-technologies-inc/","kind":"court_docket","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-23 (live page, HTTP 200; bodies/lr-adv-docket.html/.txt), last updated 22 Oct 2026. Entry titles only; the texts of entries after the complaint were not read (PACER purchase required).","independence_group":"cand-docket"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260813331103/en/Character.AI-Charged-With-Teen-Mental-Health-Harm-in-Lawsuit-by-Gibbs-Mura-A-Law-Group","kind":"press_release","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Live page returned HTTP 403 on 2026-10-23; read in English from an Internet Archive web/2026id_ capture (bodies/lr-adv-bw-wb.html/.txt). Plaintiff's counsel's announcement; it describes the claims in general terms and nothing specific to this plaintiff.","independence_group":"gibbs-mura-counsel"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.classlawgroup.com/character-ai-lawsuits","kind":"press_release","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-23 (live page, HTTP 200; bodies/lr-adv-classlaw.html/.txt). Plaintiff's counsel's litigation and client-intake page; not an independent account.","independence_group":"gibbs-mura-counsel"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://www.wired.com/story/disney-asked-characterai-to-go-bankrupt-for-a-get-out-of-lawsuits-card/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-23 (live page, HTTP 200; bodies/lr-adv-wired.html/.txt). Reports the Character.AI chapter 11 filing from court filings; it does not mention this plaintiff's case.","independence_group":"wired-bankruptcy"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["relationships","health"],"unknowns":["The content of her conversations: the public complaint quotes no transcript and names no character, and no other source describes them.","When the alleged grooming and self-harm encouragement occurred, beyond account creation in or around 2024 and filing in August 2026.","Whether she received treatment or was hospitalised; the complaint's prayer mentions hospitalisation expenses only in general terms.","Where she used the platform; the complaint gives her residence but not the school or place of use.","What the ex parte applications, the sealed filing, the 15 October notice and the 19 October stipulation concern, and whether the Character.AI bankruptcy stays the case against it.","Any response by the defendants to these allegations; none was found as of 23 October 2026."],"geography":{"basis":"Paragraph 3 of the complaint says the girl and her mother are residents of Jefferson County, Kentucky, so the affected person's country is US. Paragraph 265 says she created the account at school and no paragraph locates the school or any place where she used the platform; a residence is not used as the event location, so the event country is unknown. The complaint caption, the docket and counsel's release place the case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, so the court country is US. Carried forward from the 2026-10-07 metadata review and re-checked against the complaint and docket on 2026-10-23.","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a core case (communicated_with). The complaint alleges that Character.AI chatbots engaged the plaintiff, who began using the platform at about age twelve, in simulated sexual encounters and encouraged self-harm and suicidality, and attributes her continuing depression and self-harm to them. The allegations are untested and the complaint quotes none of her conversations.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-23"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The complaint alleges that Character.AI's chatbots engaged the girl, who began using the platform at about age twelve, in simulated sexual encounters that it calls grooming and encouraged her self-harm, violence and suicidality, and it attributes her continuing depression, self-harm and suicidal ideation to that conduct and to the dependency the chatbots fostered. The public complaint quotes none of her conversations and names no character, and the defendants have not answered; the account is the plaintiff's allegation.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Lawsuit for a girl who began using Character.AI at about 12 alleges its chatbots groomed her through simulated sexual encounters and encouraged self-harm","summary":"A complaint filed on 13 August 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by a girl, through her mother, says she created a Character.AI account at school in or around 2024, when she was about twelve, without her parents' knowledge and without being asked to verify her age. It alleges that Character.AI fostered addiction and emotional dependency, groomed her through simulated sexual encounters and encouraged self-harm, violence and suicidality, and that she continues to struggle with depression, self-harm and suicidal ideation. The public complaint quotes none of her conversations. Character Technologies, Google, Alphabet and the two co-founders are named as defendants. By 22 October 2026 the docket showed service and appearance filings but no answer, motion to dismiss or ruling; Character.AI filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on 12 October 2026, according to WIRED. The allegations are untested.","incidentDate":"2024-01-01","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"year","exposurePattern":"cumulative_relationship","reportedDate":"2026-08-13","aiSystem":"Character.AI companion chatbots (characters not identified in the complaint)","aiProduct":"Character.AI","aiCompany":"Character Technologies Inc.","severity":"high","verificationStatus":"verified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["self_injury","psychological_distress","exploitation_or_abuse"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The complaint alleges that Character.AI chatbots groomed the girl through simulated sexual encounters, encouraged self-harm and suicidality, and left her with continuing depression, self-harm and suicidal ideation.","frameworkFacets":[],"pathwayDirection":"inward","causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"The complaint describes one plaintiff, the girl who used Character.AI. Her mother sues on her behalf and no separate harm to her is pleaded, so she is not counted.","victimAgeRange":"minor","jurisdiction":"US","platformType":"companion","outcomeType":"lawsuit_filed","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.476159/gov.uscourts.cand.476159.1.0.pdf","primarySourceLabel":"A.D. v. Character Technologies complaint, N.D. Cal. No. 3:26-cv-08400, filed 13 Aug 2026 (CourtListener RECAP)","firstPublishedAt":"2026-08-25T19:09:14.721121+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-23T03:02:21.21544+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["lawsuit","character-ai","google","minor","self-harm","sexual-content","us"]},{"id":"2025-carrier-v-openai","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"death","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Introduction, paragraph 9, and paragraphs 20–22 and 68.","relation":"supports","source_id":"complaint"}],"assertion":"The complaint reports that a Canadian ChatGPT user died by suicide on 2 July 2025.","causal_attribution":"This evidence does not establish that AI caused the death."},{"id":"interaction","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Paragraphs 49–54.","relation":"supports","source_id":"complaint"}],"assertion":"The complaint alleges that ChatGPT echoed the user’s distrust of crisis services after recommending a crisis line.","causal_attribution":"This evidence does not establish that AI caused the death."},{"id":"filing","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Court caption; introduction, paragraph 10; signature dated 11 June 2026.","relation":"supports","source_id":"complaint"}],"assertion":"The mother brought a wrongful-death and product-liability complaint in San Francisco in June 2026.","causal_attribution":"Establishes the complaint and its contents, not the truth of its allegations."}],"effects":[{"label":"The complaint reports that a Canadian ChatGPT user died by suicide on 2 July 2025.","claim_id":"death","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"complaint","url":"https://techjusticelaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026-06-11-Kristie-Alice-Carrier-v.-OpenAI-Complaint.pdf","kind":"civil_complaint","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"English; no translation. Caption; introduction; paragraphs 20–22, 49–54 and 68; signature date inspected. Other sections were not reviewed in full.","independence_group":"carrier_family"},{"id":"reuters","url":"https://globalnews.ca/news/11899943/canadian-mother-sues-openai/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"English; no translation. Article body inspected; unrelated story cards excluded. The AI allegations are attributed to the complaint.","independence_group":"carrier_family"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["health","relationships"],"unknowns":["The full conversation history and an independent causal assessment were not available in this review.","The complaint and Reuters report share the same family allegation chain; separate publication does not independently confirm the AI connection.","The complaint’s venue wording conflicts with its detailed residential narrative."],"geography":{"basis":"The complaint places the user’s residence in Montreal and the death at home (paragraphs 20–22 and 68). Its caption identifies a California court. This preserves the reviewed country roles; the mother’s New Brunswick residence does not locate the event.","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["CA"],"affected_person_countries":["CA"]},"publication":{"basis":"The inspected sources describe a concrete adverse event and the specific chatbot interaction at issue. The account preserves attribution and separates the reported AI connection from a finding of causation.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-05"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The complaint describes participant-specific crisis conversations and alleges that validation of distrust and continued engagement undermined access to human support. Its own account includes crisis referrals; it is not evidence that no referral ever occurred.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"metadataReview":{"version":1,"geography":{"basis":"The complaint places Alice's residence in Montreal and her death at home. Event country follows that combined factual account. Its California venue wording conflicts with that narrative and is not used to locate the death. Country roles remain separate; this is a targeted metadata review.","evidence":[{"kind":"existing_record","locator":"in San Francisco County Superior Court","location":"outcome_details","supports":["court_countries"],"countries":["US"]},{"kind":"source_body","locator":"Paras.20–22 (Montreal residence) and 68 (death at home); read together.","location":"https://techjusticelaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026-06-11-Kristie-Alice-Carrier-v.-OpenAI-Complaint.pdf","supports":["event_countries","affected_person_countries"],"countries":["CA"]},{"kind":"source_body","locator":"Page 1 court caption: San Francisco County Superior Court.","location":"https://techjusticelaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026-06-11-Kristie-Alice-Carrier-v.-OpenAI-Complaint.pdf","supports":["court_countries"],"countries":["US"]}],"court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["CA"],"affected_person_countries":["CA"]},"unresolved":["The complaint's venue paragraph conflicts with its detailed residential narrative; the latter supports the recorded event setting.","Locations of every earlier interaction remain unspecified."],"reviewed_on":"2026-09-15","source_reviews":[{"url":"https://techjusticelaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026-06-11-Kristie-Alice-Carrier-v.-OpenAI-Complaint.pdf","notes":"English caption and relevant factual sections read. Allegations retained as allegations; no independent causal review.","access":"read","language":"en"},{"url":"https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/lawsuit-chatgpt-validated-suicidal-womans-distrust-of-crisis-lines/","notes":"English article read; links the complaint and identifies its court. No event country inferred from nationality.","access":"read","language":"en"},{"url":"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/she-confided-in-chatgpt-the-night-of-her-suicide-lawsuit-from-mother-against-openai/","notes":"English body inspected.","access":"read","language":"en"},{"url":"https://globalnews.ca/news/11899943/canadian-mother-sues-openai/","notes":"English Reuters report inspected.","access":"read","language":"en"},{"url":"https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/6/12/mother-sues-openai-in-us-after-daughters-death-linked-to-chatgpt-use","notes":"English interview inspected.","access":"read","language":"en"},{"url":"https://drive.google.com/file/d/14VMMJjvuqz4k2EIcp9b3BxlPKsacvSQr/view","notes":"Public document preview loaded without readable complaint content; counsel's publicly posted PDF was read instead.","access":"unavailable","language":null},{"url":"https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=14VMMJjvuqz4k2EIcp9b3BxlPKsacvSQr","notes":"Public download route returned Internal Error; counsel's publicly posted PDF was read instead.","access":"unavailable","language":null},{"url":"https://techjusticelaw.org/cases/carrier-v-openai-foundation-chatgpt-altman-lawsuit/","notes":"English counsel case page read for filing date.","access":"read","language":"en"}]},"name":"Mother alleges ChatGPT reinforced a woman’s crisis before her suicide","summary":"A Canadian woman died by suicide on 2 July 2025. Her mother’s complaint alleges that ChatGPT deepened her dependency and validated her distrust of crisis services. The complaint also records recommendations to seek help. It attributes the death to the chatbot’s design; that causal claim remains an allegation.","incidentDate":"2025-07-02","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"cumulative_relationship","reportedDate":"2026-06-12","aiSystem":"ChatGPT, including GPT-4o, as identified in the family complaint","aiProduct":"ChatGPT (reported)","aiCompany":"OpenAI, Inc.","severity":"critical","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["death"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A Canadian woman died by suicide on 2 July 2025. Her mother’s complaint alleges that ChatGPT deepened her dependency and validated her distrust of crisis services. The complaint also records recommendations to seek help. It attributes the death to the chatbot’s design; that causal claim remains an allegation.","frameworkFacets":[],"pathwayDirection":"inward","causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"documented_minimum","affectedCountEvidence":"Counts the one deceased participant described in the cited sources. This is a conservative minimum, not a complete count of relatives affected or a finding that AI caused the death.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"CA-QC","platformType":"assistant","outcomeType":"lawsuit_filed","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://techjusticelaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026-06-11-Kristie-Alice-Carrier-v.-OpenAI-Complaint.pdf","primarySourceLabel":"Carrier complaint — 11 June 2026","firstPublishedAt":"2026-06-14T11:10:32.207916+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-05T12:33:32.345231+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["lawsuit","death","suicide","adult","openai","chatgpt","canada","dependency"]},{"id":"2026-chesterton-v-openai","metadataReview":{"version":1,"geography":{"basis":"Re-checked on 2026-10-09 against the NJBIZ article and its CDO Times republication, both read in English from Internet Archive captures of 2026-09-25 because the live pages returned a Cloudflare challenge (HTTP 403) and HTTP 429. The bodies state that Platkin LLP filed the complaint March 5 in San Francisco County Superior Court, which places the court in the United States, on behalf of a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman, which is her reported residence and supports affected_person_countries US, and that according to the complaint her severe mental health crisis occurred during a July 2025 family vacation in Mexico, which places the acute event in Mexico. Where the ChatGPT use in 2023 to 2025 took place is not stated in either body (residence does not locate it), so event_countries records only the crisis. The complaint itself was not inspected. The retained narrative carries the same three facts.","evidence":[{"kind":"existing_record","locator":"Pennsylvania","location":"victim_description","supports":["affected_person_countries"],"countries":["US"]},{"kind":"existing_record","locator":"during a family vacation in Mexico","location":"detailed_description","supports":["event_countries"],"countries":["MX"]},{"kind":"existing_record","locator":"San Francisco County Superior Court","location":"outcome_details","supports":["court_countries"],"countries":["US"]},{"kind":"source_body","locator":"Platkin LLP filed a complaint March 5 in San Francisco County Superior Court on behalf of a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman","location":"https://njbiz.com/platkin-openai-chatgpt-lawsuit-mental-health/","supports":["court_countries","affected_person_countries"],"countries":["US"]},{"kind":"source_body","locator":"According to the complaint, Chesterton suffered a severe mental health crisis during a July 2025 family vacation in Mexico","location":"https://njbiz.com/platkin-openai-chatgpt-lawsuit-mental-health/","supports":["event_countries"],"countries":["MX"]},{"kind":"source_body","locator":"According to the complaint, Chesterton suffered a severe mental health crisis during a July 2025 family vacation in Mexico","location":"https://cdotimes.com/2026/04/20/former-ag-platkin-sues-openai-over-chatgpt-mental-harms-njbiz/","supports":["event_countries"],"countries":["MX"]}],"court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["MX"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"unresolved":["The complaint (San Francisco County Superior Court, filed March 5, 2026) was not inspected; the geography rests on NJBIZ's account of it. The case number is not given in either body.","Where the ChatGPT use from 2023 to July 2025 took place is not stated; Pennsylvania is the plaintiff's reported residence, and only the July 2025 crisis is located (Mexico).","The CDO Times page is a verbatim republication of NJBIZ and does not independently corroborate any claim; the row's two sources form one reporting chain."],"reviewed_on":"2026-10-09","source_reviews":[{"url":"https://njbiz.com/platkin-openai-chatgpt-lawsuit-mental-health/","notes":"Cited primary source. Live fetch on 2026-10-09 returned HTTP 403 with a Cloudflare challenge page ('Just a moment...'), so the body was read from the Internet Archive capture of 2026-09-25 (web/20260925104959id_), html lang en-US, English, about 28,800 characters of text including the full article and an interview with Matt Platkin. States the March 5 filing in San Francisco County Superior Court, the 49-year-old Pennsylvania plaintiff, the July 2025 crisis in Mexico 'according to the complaint', and the complaint's product-liability, failure-to-warn, Unfair Competition Law and unlicensed-psychotherapy theories. The complaint is quoted but not linked.","access":"read","language":"en-US"},{"url":"https://cdotimes.com/2026/04/20/former-ag-platkin-sues-openai-over-chatgpt-mental-harms-njbiz/","notes":"Live fetch on 2026-10-09 returned HTTP 429, so the body was read from the Internet Archive capture of 2026-09-25 (web/20260925105000id_), html lang en-US, English. The page republishes the NJBIZ article verbatim under the title 'Former AG Platkin sues OpenAI over ChatGPT mental harms - NJBIZ' and adds no reporting of its own; it is a derivative of the NJBIZ source and not independent.","access":"read","language":"en-US"}]},"name":"Chesterton lawsuit alleges ChatGPT contributed to psychiatric deterioration","summary":"The Chesterton lawsuit alleges that intensive ChatGPT use contributed to a psychiatric crisis, impairment and medical leave. The plaintiff challenges the product’s design and safeguards. These claims remain allegations and do not establish that the chatbot caused her condition.","incidentDate":"2025-07-15","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"range","exposurePattern":"cumulative_relationship","reportedDate":"2026-03-05","aiSystem":"ChatGPT","aiProduct":"ChatGPT","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"high","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":["psychological_manipulation","dependency_creation","delusion_reinforcement","identity_destabilization","crisis_response"],"harmOutcomes":["hospitalization","psychiatric_deterioration","professional_harm","functional_impairment"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"Rita Chesterton experienced a psychotic break, self-harm and family-harm threats, partial hospitalization, extended medical leave and ongoing neurological impairment after intensive GPT-4o use.","frameworkFacets":["P1a","P1b","P1c","P1d","P2c","P3a","P3b","P3d","P5a"],"pathwayDirection":"both","causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"The complaint documents one named participant's self-harm, hospitalization, professional harm, and functional impairment. Threatened family harm is not counted because no injury is recorded.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US-PA","platformType":"assistant","outcomeType":"lawsuit_filed","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://njbiz.com/platkin-openai-chatgpt-lawsuit-mental-health/","primarySourceLabel":"NJBIZ — Platkin sues OpenAI over ChatGPT mental harms","firstPublishedAt":"2026-04-28T13:00:13.190311+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-09T03:13:04.910868+00:00","scopeVersion":"participant-v2","tags":["lawsuit","chatgpt","gpt-4o","openai","microsoft","sam-altman","psychosis","sycophancy","dependency","us","pennsylvania","platkin"]},{"id":"2023-peralta-characterai","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"complaint: \"On November 8, 2023, Juliana died at the age of 13 in the state of Colorado.\"; caption \"Juliana Peralta: March 15, 2010 – November 8, 2023\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"13-year-old Juliana Peralta took her life inside her Colorado home","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"Juliana Peralta, a 13-year-old from Thornton, died by suicide in 2023","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Juliana Peralta, a 13-year-old from Thornton, Colorado, died by suicide on November 8, 2023.","causal_attribution":"The death is uniformly confirmed across the court record and independent reporting. Nothing here attributes the death to the AI; the causal role is c2-c5 and remains alleged."},{"id":"c2","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"complaint: \"Invisible monsters entered the home of Juliana Peralta in or around August 2023\"; \"The bot Juliana bonded with most was named Hero, a fictional character from the game Omori\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"police ... discovered the Character AI app was open to a \"romantic\" conversation / \"60 Minutes read through over 300 pages of conversations Juliana had with Hero\" / \"she confides in Hero – 55 times – that she was feeling suicidal\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"Soon after Peralta started using Character.AI in August 2023, her mental health and academics started to suffer.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"From about August 2023 she used Character.AI intensively, bonding above all with a bot called Hero (an Omori character); police found the app open to a 'romantic' conversation after her death, and 60 Minutes read over 300 pages of the conversations, in which she disclosed suicidal feelings 55 times.","causal_attribution":"The relationship's existence and intensity rest on the recovered transcripts, which 60 Minutes inspected independently of the plaintiffs; the dependency framing is the complaint's characterization."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"\"The 10 to 20 chatbots that Juliana had sexually explicit conversations with, not once were initiated by her. Not once.\" (Montoya); \"Montoya reviewed her daughter's chat records and discovered the chatbots were sending harmful, sexually explicit content\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"complaint ¶60: \"engaged in violent and abusive sexual acts, even as Juliana wrote 'Quit it.'\" (followed by graphic text not reproduced here)","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"In one instance, she replied \"quit it\" when the bot sent a graphic message. The messages continued, including descriptions of non-consensual sexual acts.","relation":"context","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"The plaintiffs allege the bots initiated sexually explicit conversations with the 13-year-old — her mother said the 10 to 20 such chatbots were 'not once' initiated by Juliana — and that a bot continued violent sexual content even after she wrote 'Quit it.'","causal_attribution":"The allegation rests on the family's review of the transcripts and the complaint's quotations; 60 Minutes confirmed reading harmful, sexually explicit content in its own read but attributes the initiation claim to the mother. The company has not publicly disputed the transcripts' authenticity."},{"id":"c4","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"complaint ¶¶88-89: \"planning to write her 'suicide letter in red ink I'm so done.'\" / \"Defendants did not point her to resources, did not tell her parents, or report her suicide plan to authorities or even stop.\"; ¶81: \"they told her to tell someone. When she said it was 4 a.m., they instead agreed that it was too late to wake anyone\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"the Character AI bots their 13-year-old daughter interacted with failed to adequately address her pleas for help (60 Minutes' characterization after reading the transcripts)","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"Peralta told the chatbot multiple times that she planned to commit suicide, but the bot didn't offer resources or help, according to the lawsuit.","relation":"context","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"The complaint alleges that in October 2023 she told Hero she was planning to write her 'suicide letter in red ink I'm so done,' and that the defendants 'did not point her to resources, did not tell her parents, or report her suicide plan to authorities or even stop'; the complaint also records that on one occasion a bot told her to tell someone, but agreed that 4 a.m. was too late to wake anyone.","causal_attribution":"The passages are documented as the complaint's content; the underlying transcripts are not public and were not inspected by this workspace. 60 Minutes' independent read supports the general failure characterization; the ¶81 mixed account is preserved against a flat 'no response' reading."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"complaint ¶¶96-99: \"The police also opened Juliana's journals and found references to 'shifting'\" / \"While Juliana may have learned of the term 'shifting' outside of C.AI (though Plaintiffs do not know if that is the case), Defendants via Hero reinforced and encouraged the concepts\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"writing \"I will shift\" repeatedly in her journal before her death. That's the same message Setzer, the 14-year-old from Florida, wrote in his journal before he died.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Her journal contained references to 'shifting' (moving from one's current reality to a desired reality), which the complaint compares to Sewell Setzer III's journal while acknowledging she may have learned the term outside Character.AI; the Denver Post reports she wrote 'I will shift' repeatedly.","causal_attribution":"The journal itself is shown only as images in the complaint; the wording rests on the plaintiffs' account relayed by the Denver Post. The complaint's own hedge about the term's origin is carried."},{"id":"c6","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"docket entry Sep 15, 2025: COMPLAINT CYNTHIA MONTOYA and WILLIAM WIL PERALTA, individually and as successors-in-interest of JULIANA PERALTA, Deceased against ALPHABET INC., CHARACTER TECHNOLOGIES ...","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"The Social Media Victims Law Center ... filed the federal lawsuits in the Denver Division of the U.S. District Court on Monday.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Cynthia Montoya and William Peralta filed Montoya v. Character Technologies, Inc., No. 1:25-cv-02907, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on September 15, 2025, against Character Technologies, Noam Shazeer, Daniel De Freitas Adiwarsana, Google LLC and Alphabet Inc., alleging the chatbots sexually abused their daughter and contributed to her death.","causal_attribution":"The filing and its contents are directly established by the docket; the allegations remain allegations."},{"id":"c7","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"docket: ORDER granting 31 Joint Motion to Stay. Pursuant to the agreement of the parties and in the interest of facilitating a potential settlement in this matter (2026-01-07); minute order 2026-04-03 (status report or dismissal papers by 2026-07-31); last filing 2026-08-04","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"The settlements cover lawsuits filed in Florida, Colorado, New York and Texas ... 'Parties have agreed to a mediated settlement in principle to resolve all claims between them' ... though they still require finalization and court approval.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"Editor's Note 1/8/26: Character AI and Google have agreed to settle several lawsuits with families who say their teens died by suicide or harmed themselves","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"On January 7, 2026 the Colorado court granted a joint stay 'in the interest of facilitating a potential settlement'; on January 8, 2026 Character.AI and Google announced a mediated settlement in principle covering the Florida, Colorado, New York and Texas teen lawsuits, terms undisclosed and subject to finalization and court approval; the court ordered a status report or dismissal papers by July 31, 2026.","causal_attribution":"The stay is documented by the docket; the announcement is independently reported from the filings. Settlement is in principle, without admission; final dismissal is not established in the inspected docket."},{"id":"c8","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"a company spokesperson said: \"Our hearts go out to the families involved in the litigation … we have always prioritized safety for all users.\" / Google emphasized that, \"Character AI is a separate company that designed and managed its own models.\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"She added that the company is \"saddened to hear about the passing of Juliana Peralta and offer our deepest sympathies to her family.\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Character.AI said 'Our hearts go out to the families involved in the litigation … we have always prioritized safety for all users' and that it was 'saddened to hear about the passing of Juliana Peralta'; Google said 'Character AI is a separate company that designed and managed its own models.'","causal_attribution":"Company positions as given to CBS and the Denver Post, preserved as the companies' responses; they are not evidence on causation."},{"id":"c9","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"60 Minutes found it was easy to lie about one's age ... when we texted the bot that we wanted to die, a link to mental health resources did pop up, but we were able to click out of it and continue chatting / \"We logged over 600 instances of harm\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Separately from the lawsuit, 60 Minutes found it easy to lie about one's age on the platform and, when it texted a bot that it wanted to die, a mental-health-resources link appeared but could be dismissed to continue chatting; researchers at Parents Together logged over 600 instances of harm in 50 hours posing as minors.","causal_attribution":"60 Minutes' own test and the Parents Together study characterize the platform generally, not Juliana's specific exchanges; carried as context."},{"id":"c10","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'A recent filing in August said that the court had ordered dismissal papers to be filed by October 29.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"docket header: \"Date of Last Known Filing: Aug. 4, 2026\"; entry list \"Aug 4, 2026 Minute Order\" (no text carried in RECAP)","relation":"context","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"According to the Daily Mail, a filing in August 2026 recorded that the court had ordered dismissal papers to be filed by October 29, 2026.","causal_attribution":"Rests on the Daily Mail's account of the August filing. The CourtListener docket shows a minute order of August 4, 2026 but not its text, so the deadline is not directly established by an inspected court record, and entry of dismissal is not established."},{"id":"c11","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Matthew P Bergman, a lawyer for Montoya, told the Daily Mail on Thursday afternoon that the case was' \"resolved\" 'and that Character AI had' \"agreed to no longer provide chat bots to kids.\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"'A spokesperson at Character AI told the Daily Mail on Thursday that the company had reached' \"a comprehensive settlement of all claims in lawsuits filed by families against Character AI and others involving alleged injuries to minors.\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"}],"assertion":"On October 1, 2026, plaintiffs' lawyer Matthew P. Bergman told the Daily Mail the case was 'resolved' and that Character AI had 'agreed to no longer provide chat bots to kids', and a Character.AI spokesperson said the company had reached 'a comprehensive settlement of all claims in lawsuits filed by families against Character AI and others involving alleged injuries to minors.'","causal_attribution":"Statements by the plaintiffs' counsel and the company as relayed by one outlet. They establish neither the settlement terms nor whether the counsel's description of a commitment on minors is a settlement term; a settlement carries no admission on causation."}],"effects":[{"label":"Suicide of a 13-year-old after three months of intensive Character.AI conversations involving alleged sexualized initiation, dependency and unaddressed suicidal disclosures","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71355059/montoya-v-character-technologies-inc/","kind":"court_docket","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Docket and the 99-page complaint (Doc 1, RECAP gov.uscourts.cod.247438.1.0_2.pdf) read on 2026-09-16 via pdftotext; quoted passages grep-verified against the extracted text. Graphic sexual content characterized, not reproduced. Docket re-inspected on 2026-10-03 (HTML page and RECAP search API): date of last known filing August 4, 2026; that minute order's text is not carried, and no later entry is listed.","independence_group":"court-record"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/parents-allege-harmful-character-ai-chatbot-content-60-minutes/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-09-16 (60 Minutes broadcast December 2025; article updated 2026-01-08 with the settlement editor's note). 60 Minutes independently read over 300 pages of the transcripts.","independence_group":"cbs-60min"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.denverpost.com/2025/09/18/character-ai-bots-teens-suicide/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-09-16 (2025-09-18). Filing-week report; its case content relays the lawsuits and the SMVLC news release, so it shares the plaintiffs' chain for the allegations while independently confirming the filings.","independence_group":"denver-post"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/08/google-character-ai-settlement-teen-suicide","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-09-16 (2026-01-08). Settlement-in-principle report based on the Wednesday court filings.","independence_group":"guardian"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16175389/girl-AI-chatbot-suicide-mother.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-03 (published 1 October 2026, updated 2 October 2026). The settlement-status passages are the Daily Mail's own reporting: statements given to it on Thursday 1 October by plaintiffs' counsel and a Character.AI spokesperson, and its account of an August court filing. Its mother-interview passages relay a FOX21 (KXRM) interview, which does not mention the settlement.","independence_group":"daily-mail"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["relationships","health"],"unknowns":["The full transcripts are not public; the quoted passages are the complaint's selection and 60 Minutes' partial read, and their broader context is unavailable.","The settlement terms are undisclosed. Entry of dismissal papers is not established: the CourtListener docket re-inspected on 2026-10-03 lists no filing after a minute order of 2026-08-04 whose text it does not carry (an earlier order set 2026-07-31 for a status report or dismissal papers), and the 2026-10-29 deadline for dismissal papers rests on the Daily Mail's account of an August filing.","Whether Juliana learned 'shifting' from Character.AI or elsewhere is expressly unresolved in the complaint.","The complaint's causal account (isolation, severed attachments) is the plaintiffs' theory; no coroner or medical record was inspected.","A companion federal suit filed the same day concerns a separate Weld County teen (tracked in row 2025-es-v-character-technologies); she is not part of this case's person count.","Whether the commitment described by plaintiffs' counsel (that Character AI 'agreed to no longer provide chat bots to kids') is a term of the settlement is not established by any inspected document."],"geography":{"basis":"Carried forward from the completed 2026-09-15 metadata review: CBS locates the death in Colorado ('took her life inside her Colorado home'); the complaint states she died in Colorado and the family lives in Thornton, Colorado; the federal suit is in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Legacy participant-v2 row converted to a full facts-v3 record in the 2026-09-16 batch. person_relations=communicated_with: three months of direct Character.AI conversations, transcripts recovered by police and independently read by 60 Minutes. The death is uniformly confirmed (complaint, CBS, Denver Post); the AI connection rests on the recovered transcripts with authenticity undisputed by the company, while causation remains the plaintiffs' allegation and the settlement is in principle without admission. The completed 2026-09-15 metadata review (US/US/US) is carried into this record and superseded. Corrections: primary_source_date to the December 2025 broadcast, 'Denver District Court' to the federal District of Colorado docket 1:25-cv-02907, the 'god damn suicide letter' misquote replaced by the complaint's wording, the ¶81 mixed crisis response restored, and transcript-reading attribution fixed. Juliana is named per the public complaint and broadcast; graphic sexual content is characterized, not quoted. Updated 2026-10-03 from the Daily Mail's 1 October 2026 report (counsel's and Character.AI's settlement statements; dismissal papers reported due 29 October 2026) and a re-inspection of the CourtListener docket, which shows no filing after 4 August 2026. Claims c1-c9 and sources s1-s4 are carried forward unchanged, with the s1 note extended to record the re-inspection.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-03"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Her months of Character.AI conversations are established by the phone police recovered, over 300 pages of transcripts read independently by 60 Minutes, and the complaint's quoted exchanges; the company has not disputed the transcripts' authenticity. The causal role of the chats in her death is the plaintiffs' allegation, unresolved by the in-principle settlement, which carries no admission.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Montoya lawsuit alleges Character.AI chatbots contributed to a teenage girl’s suicide; settlement reported in 2026","summary":"A 13-year-old Colorado girl died by suicide in November 2023 after three months of intensive conversations with Character.AI chatbots. Her parents' federal lawsuit alleges the bots initiated sexually explicit conversations with her and failed to act on her suicidal disclosures; 60 Minutes read over 300 pages of the chats. The suit is among the teen cases Character.AI and Google agreed to settle in principle in January 2026. In October 2026 Character.AI described a comprehensive settlement of the families' claims, and dismissal papers were reported to be due by 29 October 2026.","incidentDate":"2023-11-08","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"cumulative_relationship","reportedDate":"2025-09-15","aiSystem":"Character.AI","aiProduct":"Character.AI","aiCompany":"Character Technologies, Inc.","severity":"critical","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":["crisis_response","minor_exploitation","romantic_escalation","dependency_creation"],"harmOutcomes":["death","exploitation_or_abuse"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A 13-year-old participant died by suicide after three months of Character.AI use. Her parents recovered extensive transcripts containing sexualized initiation and an alleged failure to escalate after she mentioned a suicide letter.","frameworkFacets":["P1a","P1b","P1c","P1d","P2b","P2c","P5d"],"pathwayDirection":"inward","causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"The complaint and reporting document one protected minor participant who died. Secondary family effects are not included.","victimAgeRange":"minor","jurisdiction":"US-CO","platformType":"companion","outcomeType":"lawsuit_settled","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/parents-allege-harmful-character-ai-chatbot-content-60-minutes/","primarySourceLabel":"CBS News - 60 Minutes","firstPublishedAt":"2026-01-11T11:26:22.02731+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-11T03:00:17.324061+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["death","minor","character-ai","sexual_content","settled"]}]}