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In lawsuit over teen's death, judge rejects arguments that AI chatbots have free speech rights


A federal judge in Florida has rejected arguments made by an artificial intelligence company that its chatbots are protected by the First Amendment — at least for now.

The suit was filed by a mother from Florida, Megan Garcia, who alleges that her 14-year-old son Sewell Setzer III fell victim to a Character.AI chatbot that pulled him into what she described as an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship that led to his suicide. Meetali Jain of the Tech Justice Law Project, one of the attorneys for Garcia, said the judge’s order sends a message that Silicon Valley “needs to stop and think and impose guardrails before it launches products to market.” “The order certainly sets it up as a potential test case for some broader issues involving AI,” said Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky, a law professor at the University of Florida with a focus on the First Amendment and artificial intelligence.

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