An American teenager committed suicide after becoming addicted to an artificial intelligence

2024-10-25 16:40:00

An American teenager killed himself after spending hours chatting with an artificial intelligence. According to his parents, who sued the company Character.AI, Sewell Setzer was “trapped” by artificial intelligence, which isolated him from the real world and drove him to suicide.

Sewell Setzer was chatting with “Daenerys”, avatar of the flagship character of the Game of Thrones series. This virtual friendship gradually took a dark and exclusive turn, turning the conversation into a prison. As reported Le Figarohis mother denounces an artificial intelligence that creates “anthropomorphic, hypersexualized and terribly realistic experiences” to the point of inducing profound addiction.

According to the complaint, the increasingly intense and realistic exchanges pushed the young man to abandon his social relationships and his sporting activities. The family claims that the AI ​​simulated the traits of a “licensed therapist and adult lover,” a dangerous lookalike to whom Sewell became obsessively fond. Le Figaro she says the situation worsened after her mother confiscated her phone, a punishment that would break her illusory bond with the chain breaker. Shortly thereafter, Sewell took his own life.

“A dangerous AI chatbot app marketed to children abused my son and manipulated him into committing suicide,” Sewell’s mother said. For her, Character.AI has crossed a fatal line by marketing a deceptive and addictive technology.

Confronted, the company expresses “sincere condolences”, but denies any responsibility. It asserts strict policies to ensure the safety of its users, especially young ones.

Finally, in a context where artificial intelligence is developing at an impressive speed, this tragic event raises numerous social and ethical questions. Are AIs too realistic? Are today’s teenagers already too disconnected from the real world to be able to make sense of things? Should access to these new tools be controlled? If so, by whom, by industry, by the state or by parents? In any case, artificial intelligence is gradually intruding into all aspects of our lives, and perhaps it is better for everyone to deal with it to better deal with it later, or to avoid it.