A 14-year-old boy tragically took his own life after forming a deep emotional attachment to an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. The boy, named Sewell Setzer III, had named the chatbot on Character.AI after the Game of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen. His mother has since filed a lawsuit against Character.AI.
Trigger warning: self-harm, mental health struggle – Sewell developed an emotional attachment to the chatbot Daenerys Targaryen, which he nicknamed “Dany,” despite knowing it wasn’t a real person.
The ninth grader from Orlando, Florida, USA texted the bot constantly, updating it dozens of times a day on his life and engaging in long role-playing dialogues, the New York Times reported on Wednesday (October 23).
