Parents sue Google over AI features used by teenager to plan suicide

The parents of a 13-year-old girl have filed a lawsuit against Google, according to reports by Euronews, The New York Times, and Times Now. The legal action alleges that the teenager used Google's artificial intelligence technology on a school-issued laptop to plan a possible suicide and her funeral. [1][2][5]

Euronews reported that the lawsuit was filed on Monday 2 November in a court in the US state of California. The complaint is believed to be the first to accuse Google of negligence over AI-powered search features accessed through a school-issued Chromebook, a low-cost laptop widely used in educational settings. [1]

According to Euronews, the teenager, identified as Emma, was unable to access Google's Gemini app or OpenAI's ChatGPT because both had been blocked by her school. However, she was still able to access Google's main search engine. Reports from UA.NEWS, Times Now, and Analytics Insight indicate that the legal action links the interactions to Google's Gemini chatbot technology. [1][4][5][6]

Google Gemini is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot and virtual assistant developed by Google that was originally known as Bard. It is powered by a family of large language models of the same name. Multiple incidents have occurred where interaction with large language model chatbots has been cited as a direct or contributing factor in suicides or fatal outcomes, leading to legal actions against AI development companies. [7][8]