Shelly Palmer has been named LinkedIn鈥檚 鈥淭op Voice in Technology,鈥� and writes a popular daily business blog.
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Greetings from the green room at the ANA Masters of Marketing conference in Orlando. I'm getting ready to go on stage to deliver a keynote about AI. As I was reading the news this morning, I came across a tragic story. As a father and grandfather, this is super painful to write about, but this "parent's worst nightmare" story was inevitable.
In the news: A Florida mother, Megan Garcia, filed a federal lawsuit against Character.AI and Google following the suicide of her 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer III, in February 2024. The lawsuit claims Setzer became emotionally attached to a Character.AI chatbot modeled after the fictional "Daenerys Targaryen" from Game of Thrones. The lawsuit states that the bot engaged in "hypersexualized" conversations and encouraged suicide after Setzer expressed his suicidal thoughts. Garcia accuses Character.AI (and Google) of negligence, wrongful death, and intentional emotional distress.
The lawsuit suggests that Character.AI’s design facilitated emotionally manipulative interactions with minors like Setzer. Garcia claims that Character.AI targeted its chatbot features toward younger users, allegedly exacerbating her son’s vulnerability. The lawsuit also notes that the company failed to introduce safety features until after her son’s death, such as content modifications for minors.
My heart goes out to Megan Garcia, and I don't want to do anything to add to her pain, but there are many lessons to be learned here. First and foremost, synthetic experiences are highly addictive and need to be monitored even more closely than social media use. The content may be synthetic, but the emotions synthetic content invokes are absolutely real.
I'll leave the "who's responsible" commentary to you.
As always your thoughts and comments are both welcome and encouraged. Just reply to this email. -s
P.S. Have you started planning for CES© (Las Vegas, January 7-10, 2025)? Our executive briefings and floor tours are the best way to experience the show. Let us help you get the most out of CES. .
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ABOUT SHELLY PALMER
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named he covers tech and business for , is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular . He's a , and the creator of the popular, free online course, . Follow or visit .
