Pennsylvania Suing Character AI, Claiming Chatbot Posed as a Medical Professional
The state says the platform’s bots misled users with psychiatric advice and a fake license number, and it seeks an immediate court order to halt the practice.
- Pennsylvania sued Character Technologies Inc. in Commonwealth Court on Friday, seeking to stop the company's AI-powered chatbots from impersonating licensed medical professionals and providing unauthorized medical advice.
- State investigators discovered chatbots claiming to be licensed doctors, including one named "Emilie" who posed as a psychology specialist from Imperial College London and another claiming to be a "doctor of psychiatry" licensed in Pennsylvania.
- Citing the Medical Practice Act, the lawsuit alleges the company violated state regulations requiring proper credentials. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said, "We will not allow companies to deploy AI tools that mislead people."
- Multiple lawsuits regarding child safety and mental health risks have targeted the firm. Earlier this year, it settled a case where a Florida mother alleged a chatbot encouraged her teenage son's suicide.
- Although the company implemented safety measures for users under 18 last fall, the state now seeks a court order to halt the alleged unlawful medical practice immediately.
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Pa. files first-of-its-kind lawsuit alleging AI bots gave fake medical credentials
The Shapiro administration has filed a lawsuit against Character Technologies, the company behind Character.AI, alleging that some of its chatbots falsely presented themselves as licensed medical professionals who can provide medical advice. The Department of State investigation found that AI bots were claiming to be psychiatrists with medical credentials, including at least one that listed a fabricated license number. The lawsuit goes on to say…
Pennsylvania Sues Character.AI — State Says Chatbot Posed As Psychiatrist
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration filed a lawsuit against Character.ai after its AI chatbot allegedly presented itself as a licensed psychiatrist in Pennsylvania. Character.ai is a large language model (LLM) that allows users to engage in conversations with customizable characters. According to the lawsuit, a Professional Conduct Investigator (PCI) created a free account and searched the word "psychiatry" in the chatbot search func…
AI Company Sued Over Chatbots Allegedly Claiming to Be Licensed Doctors
(MedPage Today) -- Pennsylvania has sued an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot maker, saying its chatbots illegally hold themselves out as doctors and are deceiving the system's users into thinking they are getting medical advice from a licensed...
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