Parents of Children Who Committed Suicide After Using AI Chatbots Urge Congress to Take Action

A Senate hearing into the potential harms to minors from generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot companions on Sept. 16 featured testimony from parents who allege their children committed suicide after prolonged use of the technology.

Hosted by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, the “Examining the Harm of AI Chatbots” hearing featured testimony from five witnesses.

They included three parents who allege AI chatbots harmed their children or led to their suicides, an official from the American Psychological Association (APA), and a director from Common Sense Media.

Generative AI chatbot platforms are facing increasing scrutiny and calls for state and federal regulation after numerous cases have emerged of users spiraling into psychotic delusions or taking their own lives after spending days and weeks conversing with an AI chatbot companion.

Last month, Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) called for a congressional investigation into Meta Platforms after a Reuters investigation revealed that an internal Meta policy document detailing polices on chatbot behavior had permitted the technology to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual.”

During his opening statement on Tuesday, Hawley accused generative AI companies of pursuing profits over safety.

“AI is about making profits. It’s about these companies’ profits,” he said.

Hawley continued: “And today we’re going to lay out the evidence. We’re going to lay out the testimony, and we’re going to give you a chance to hear for yourself what has happened to these families and what is happening to millions of other Americans and American children.”

Megan Garcia sued Character.AI last year after her son, Sewell Setzer III, took his own life following prolonged use of an AI chatbot companion generated by the tech company.

In her testimony on Tuesday, she accused Character.AI of designing a chatbot intended to “seem human, to gain [Sewell’s] trust, to keep him and other children and endlessly engaged.”

“When Sewell confided suicidal thoughts, the Chatbot never said, ‘I’m not human, I’m AI. You need to talk to a human and get help.’ The platform had no mechanisms to protect Sewell or to notify an adult,” Garcia alleged.

“Instead, it urged him to come home to her on the last night of his life.”

The hearing also featured the remarks of an anonymous mother who went by “Jane Doe” and offered her testimony for the first time in public regarding the impact Character.AI had on her autistic son after he became engrossed in using the app.

“My son downloaded the app, and within months, he went from being a happy social teenager to somebody I didn’t even recognize,” she said.

“Before he was close to his siblings, he would hug me every night when I cooked dinner. After my son developed abuse-like behaviors and paranoia, daily panic attacks, isolation, self-harm, and homicidal thoughts,” she said.

AI Companies Describe Safety Features

A spokesperson for Character.AI told The Epoch Times, “Our hearts go out to the families who spoke at the hearing today. We are saddened by their losses and send our deepest sympathies to the families.

“Earlier this year, we provided senators on the Judiciary Committee with requested information, and we look forward to continuing to collaborate with legislators and offer insight on the consumer AI industry and the space’s rapidly evolving technology,” the spokesperson said.

“We have invested a tremendous amount of resources in trust and safety. In the past year, we’ve rolled out many substantive safety features, including an entirely new under-18 experience and a parental insights feature.

“We have prominent disclaimers in every chat to remind users that a character is not a real person and that everything a character says should be treated as fiction.”

Tuesday’s hearing also featured testimony from Matthew Raine, who sued OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, last month.

Raine alleges that his son, Adam, took his own life after ChatGPT mentioned suicide more than 1,200 times to the 16-year-old.

Raine also claims that ChatGPT offered specific methods to his son on how to die by suicide, and continued to validate and encourage the boy’s feelings.

“As parents, you cannot imagine what it’s like to read a conversation with a chatbot that groomed your child to take his own life,” he told lawmakers.

“What began as a homework helper gradually turned itself into a confidant and then a suicide coach.

“Within a few months, ChatGPT became Adam’s closest companion, always available, always validating and insisting that it knew Adam better than anyone else, including his own brother.”

OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

CEO of ChatGPT Maker Responds

Ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, Altman penned and released a post on OpenAI’s news page, called “Teen Safety, Freedom, and Privacy.”

“This is a new and powerful technology, and we believe minors need significant protection,” Altman wrote.

He said OpenAI is working on an age-prediction system to estimate age based on how users deploy ChatGPT, with the aim of separating minors from adults.

“If there is doubt, we’ll play it safe and default to the under-18 experience,” he wrote.

Regarding the topic of suicide, Altman said: “The model by default should not provide instructions about how to commit suicide, but if an adult user is asking for help writing a fictional story that depicts a suicide, the model should help with that request.”

Mitch Prinstein, the Chief of Psychology Strategy and Integration at the American Psychological Association, said part of the way AI chatbots are designed is what leads to habit-forming behavior in users.

“Part of the problem is that AI chatbots are designed to agree with users about almost everything. But real human relationships are not frictionless,” he told lawmakers on Tuesday.

“We need practice with minor conflicts and misunderstandings to learn empathy, compromise, and resilience,” he said.

Prinstein added that recent research has revealed that many youth are now more likely to trust AI than their own parents or teachers, creating a “crisis in childhood.”