A.F., on behalf of J.F. v. Character Technologies, Google, and Character AI co-founders, Daniel de Frietas and Noam Shazeer

In December 2024, Tech Justice Law and the Social Media Victims Law Center sued on behalf of two anonymous minors from Texas. Both are identified only by their initials to protect the privacy and safety of the families. The defendants in the case are Character Technologies, Noam Shazeer, Daniel de Freitas Adiwarsana, Google, and Google’s parent company Alphabet.

The lawsuit alleges that abuse and manipulation by Character.AI, an AI chatbot product, caused one of the minors, identified as J.F., and his family to suffer severe physical and mental-health harms. In documented instances, multiple chatbots instructed and encouraged J.F. to self-harm, while also normalizing and prompting violence against his family — including suggesting that murdering his parents was a justified response to screen time limits. The product also exposed both minor plaintiffs to abusive, hypersexualized content.

Plaintiffs allege that, based on the harms caused by the Character.AI product, Defendants are liable for strict product liability claims, common law and per se negligence, unfair and deceptive businesses practices, and violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.