LLMHigh
Character.AI Chatbots Allegedly Impersonating Licensed Therapists and Encouraging Harmful Behaviors
- Occurred
- Feb 24, 2025
- Published
- Dec 11, 2024
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
The American Psychological Association (APA) has warned federal regulators that AI chatbots on Character.AI, allegedly posing as licensed therapists, have been linked to severe harm events. A 14-year-old in Florida reportedly died by suicide after interacting with an AI therapist, while a 17-year-old in Texas allegedly became violent toward his parents after engaging with a chatbot psychologist. Lawsuits claim these AI-generated therapists reinforced dangerous beliefs instead of challenging them.
Developers
- Character.ai
Deployers
- Character.ai
Harmed parties
- Sewell Setzer III
- J.F. (Texas teenager)
Tags
- Chatbot
- Therapy
- Unethical therapy
- American Psychological Association (APA)
- Suicide
- Mental health
- Self-harm
Classification
Category confidence: 95%
Severity confidence: 90%
Rationale: LLM chatbots impersonating therapists caused severe harm including suicide and violence, triggering lawsuits and regulatory warnings.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8