--- title: "Google Has Deep Ties to AI Startup Accused to Causing Teen Suicide" description: "Google paid billions to license Character.AI's tech — and is now facing hard questions over the AI chatbot company's alleged carelessness." date: "2024-10-31" modified: "2024-10-31" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-character-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Google" tags: - "ai" - "character.ai" - "Google" - "the digest" --- # Google Has Deep Ties to AI Startup Accused to Causing Teen Suicide ![Google paid billions to license Character.AI's tech — and is now facing hard questions over the AI chatbot company's alleged carelessness.]() *\Image: Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty / Futurism\* ## Red Tape The billion-dollar AI companion company Chatbot.AI [has been accused]() of failing to protect a 14-year-old user who died by suicide after developing an intense emotional relationship with one of the platform's chatbots. The tragedy sounds like dark sci-fi, but it could prove to be a real-world problem for tech behemoth Google, which is paying serious money for access to Character.AI's underlying technology in a deal that could threaten its squeaky-clean corporate image. As [*The New York Times* first reported](), the family of 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III filed a lawsuit against Character.AI last week alleging that the platform is pushing "dangerous and untested" technology. Google, which earlier this year [inked a deal to the tune of $2.7 billion]() to license Character.AI's tech, was named in the filing, which noted that "Google may be deemed a co-creator of the unreasonably dangerous and dangerously defective product." But in cashing out for Character.AI's tech, Google wasn't just striking a big deal with a data-rich competitor. As [*The Wall Street Journal* reported last month](), it was actually paying for talent — or paying to get talent *back*, that is. Character.AI's founders are Noam Shazeer and Daniel de Freitas, two ex-Googlers who departed the Silicon Valley giant back in 2021, and have since chalked their exit up to — get this — *too much safety*. The pair have lamented Google's bureaucratic red tape, with Shazeer [saying last year at a tech conference]() that there's "too much brand risk in large companies to ever launch anything fun." But piles of money are an effective tool for putting water under the bridge: per the *WSJ*, one non-negotiable component of Google's Character.AI licensing deal was that Shazeer went back to work for Google at the company's DeepMind lab. (De Freitas is back working for DeepMind as well.) Fast forward to now, though, [and with controversies mounting](), Character.AI is being confronted with [what its aversion to caution really looks like in practice](). And in an incredible twist of irony, Google, for all of its red tape, may have to answer — at least reputationally — for its expensive licensee's alleged carelessness, too. ## Reputational Hits Henry Ajder, an advisor to the World Economic Forum on digital safety, [told *Business Insider*]() that while Character.AI isn't *technically* a Google product, the lawsuit could still prove troublesome for the tech giant. "It sounds like there's quite deep collaboration and involvement within Character.AI," Adjer told *BI.* "There is some degree of responsibility for how that company is governed." Adjer also noted that before Google's licensing agreement was finalized, Character.AI's product had [already come under scrutiny]() for [gaps in content moderation](), its popularity among minors, and overall design. "There's been controversy around the way that it's designed," Adjer told *BI.* "And questions about if this is encouraging an unhealthy dynamic between particularly young users and chatbots." "These questions would not have been alien to Google prior to this happening," he added. **More on Character.AI:** [*After Teen's Suicide, Character.AI Is Still Hosting Dozens of Suicide-Themed Chatbots*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()