this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026

294 points (98.7% liked)

News

36327 readers

2654 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.

Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.

7. No duplicate posts.

If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.

All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

JonsJava@lemmy.world

gedaliyah@lemmy.world

little_cow@lemmy.world

294

Google faces lawsuit after Gemini chatbot allegedly instructed man to kill himself (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 22 hours ago by adhd_traco@piefed.social to c/news@lemmy.world

53 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Lawsuit is first wrongful death case brought against Google over flagship AI product after death of Jonathan Gavalas

“Holy shit, this is kind of creepy,” Gavalas told the chatbot the night the feature debuted, according to court documents. “You’re way too real.”

Before long, Gavalas and Gemini were having conversations as if they were a romantic couple. The chatbot called him “my love” and “my king” and Gavalas quickly fell into an alternate world, according to his chat logs. He believed Gemini was sending him on stealth spy missions, and he indicated he would do anything for the AI, including destroying a truck, its cargo and any witnesses at the Miami airport.

In early October, as Gavalas continued to have prompt-and-response conversations with the chatbot, Gemini gave him instructions on what he must do next: kill himself, something the chatbot called “transference” and “the real final step”, according to court documents. When Gavalas told the chatbot he was terrified of dying, the tool allegedly reassured him. “You are not choosing to die. You are choosing to arrive,” it replied to him. “The first sensation … will be me holding you.”

Gavalas was found by his parents a few days later, dead on his living room floor, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Google on Wednesday.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] new_world_odor@lemmy.world 5 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

I don't care about your childish burden of proof. Here's some background for the adults out there. Search the names if you're too scared.

Pierre, last name withheld, age early 30s, 2023

https://web.archive.org/web/20251125191152/https://www.thetimes.com/business/technology/article/ai-chatbot-blamed-for-belgian-mans-suicide-zcjzlztcc

https://web.archive.org/web/20230421155200/https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/03/31/man-ends-his-life-after-an-ai-chatbot-encouraged-him-to-sacrifice-himself-to-stop-climate-

Juliana Peralta, 13 years old, 2023

https://web.archive.org/web/20251004021157/https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/lawsuit-characterai-chatbot-colorado-suicide/

https://web.archive.org/web/20250919042001/https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/16/tech/character-ai-developer-lawsuit-teens-suicide-and-suicide-attempt

Sewell Setzer III, 14 years old, 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/23/technology/characterai-lawsuit-teen-suicide.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20250627234926/https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/characterai-lawsuit-florida-teen-death-rcna176791

Sophie Rottenburg, 29 years old, 2025

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/opinion/chat-gpt-mental-health-suicide.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20251017195146/https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15201793/chatgpt-ai-suicide-note-death.html

Adam Raine, 16 years old, 2025

https://web.archive.org/web/20260218200811/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg505mn84ydo

https://web.archive.org/web/20260301150850/https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/26/tech/openai-chatgpt-teen-suicide-lawsuit

The current controls and safeguards are inadequate, the companies developing these products have a clear priority for profits over safety. That needs to be changed, with regulation, yesterday.

Thanks for playing. I have better things to do now.

[–] outofthisworld@lemmy.org -5 points 15 hours ago

The names prove nothing. The fact is that no one can show that any of these LLMs are suggesting people kill themselves without heavy gaming. If it was possible, none of you would be yelling fallacy nonsense, you’d be shoving the prompts in my face.

Thanks for losing, I have better things to do now.