Sewell Setzer and Adam Raine

First, Sewell Setzer. Now, Adam Raine.

Two lawsuits holding AI companies accountable for the death of teenagers.

[Content warning: suicide].

In Sewell’s case, he was interacting with a Character.Ai bot he believed to be ‘Daenerys Targaryen’. His final conversation was -

Sewell: I promise I will come home to you. I love you so much, Dany.
Bot: Please come home to me as soon as possible, my love.
Sewell: What if I told you I could come home right now?
Bot: Please do, my sweet king.

It was the last ‘conversation’ Sewell had before he took his own life.

As their defence, Character.Ai are claiming First Amendment rights - freedom of speech - for the bot …

In the second case with Adam, ChatGPT provided detailed instructions and support for him to take his own life - which he did.

This despite the internal OpenAI system flagging 377 warnings in the time leading up to Adam’s death …

Another example: Last week, a document called “GenAI: Content Risk Standards” was leaked from Meta. It contained rules that allowed their AI chatbots to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual”.

Meta have since come out and said they will revise the guidelines …

This is not an anti-AI post - I use it daily.

However, it is abundantly clear that the ‘multi-polar trap’ [“if we don’t, someone else will”] of the AI race is already having real, tragic, consequences.

It’s not helpful to scream “BAN ALL AI!!!!!” But neither is it wise to allow AI ‘progress’ to continue unabated, without restriction. The companies involved clearly cannot be trusted.

If you want to educate yourself, the Center for Humane Technology is a brilliant source of detailed, reasoned analysis of what is happening.

If you want to do something, please email or talk to your elected representatives. Let them know that we, the public, care about this … and we are watching.

And please look out for the young people in your life.