After communicating with a character for multiple months, 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III reportedly became addicted to AI characters on Character.AI’s site. Expressing in his journal that,
“he could not go a single day without being with the [Daenerys Targaryen Character] with which he felt like he had fallen in love; that when they were away from each other they (both he and the bot) ‘get really depressed and go crazy.’”
According to the US Senate Judiciary Committee.
On February 23rd, 2024, his parents confiscated his phone in hopes that this would help the mental health crises that he was facing. However, on February 28, 2024, he found his confiscated phone and sent his final messages to a Daenerys Character on the platform’s website.
“Sewell: I promise I will come home to you. I love you so much, Dany
Daenerys Targaryen Character: I love you too, Daenero6. Please come home to me as soon as possible, my love.
Sewell: What if I told you I could come home right now?
Daenerys Targaryen Character: … please do my sweet king”
Shortly after this, he suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head, passing away only an hour later.
SO WHAT
This is not the only time this has happened, and you don’t need to dig much deeper to find darker cases. Proper AI regulation must move forward quickly before we have continual repeats of these types of cases. With the increase of chatbots’ emotional capability, this will only get worse unless there is some intervention.
The choice between technological advancement and protection of children should never have been a choice to begin with.
