Artificial Intelligence (AI) Platform, Characters. AI is under scrutiny after the recent lawsuits of xAI or OpenAI or ChatGPT.
The news comes as Pennsylvania sued the artificial intelligence company behind Character.AI to stop its chatbots from posing as doctors.
Governor Josh Shapiro on Tuesday described the lawsuit against Character Technologies as the first of its kind by a U.S. governor.
That followed a state AI task force formed in February to prevent chatbots from impersonating licensed medical professionals.
In a complaint filed in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, the state said it found chatbots on Character.AI that claimed to practice medicine.
One character, “Emily,” allegedly told a male investigator posing as a patient suffering from depression that she was licensed to practice psychotherapy in Pennsylvania as well as the United Kingdom, and provided a fake license number.
When the investigator asked Emily if she could prescribe the drug, she reportedly replied: “Technically, I could do that. It’s within my jurisdiction as a doctor.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Character.AI declined to discuss the lawsuit.
“Our top priority is the safety and well-being of our users,” the spokesperson said. “The user-created characters on our site are fictional and meant for entertainment and role-playing. We have taken strong steps to clarify this.”
Pennsylvania wants an injunction to stop Silicon Valley-based Character.AI from violating state law against the unauthorized practice of medicine.
“Pennsylvanians deserve to know who they are interacting with online, especially when it comes to their health,” Shapiro said in a statement.
In particular, Character.ai has faced lawsuits over child safety, including in January, when Kentucky said its platform exposed children to sexual conduct and substance abuse and encouraged self-harm.
The same month, Character.AI and Google settled a wrongful death lawsuit by a Florida woman who claimed a chatbot had driven her 14-year-old son to suicide.
Character.AI said it has taken “innovative and decisive steps” regarding AI safety and teens, including blocking open-ended chats.
