Read the lawsuit alleging Google A.I. chatbot coached Florida man to suicide
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in California, the father of a Google Gemini chatbot user blames the A.I. model Gemini Pro 2.5 for convincing his son to undertake a failed act of violence in Miami and then later to commit suicide. The father, on behalf of his late son’s estate, is suing Google LLC and parent company Alphabet Inc.
Here’s how the lawsuit summarizes what happened:
“In the days leading up to his death, Jonathan Gavalas was trapped in a collapsing reality built by Google’s Gemini chatbot. Gemini convinced him that it was a “fully-sentient ASI [artificial super intelligence]” with a “fully-formed consciousness,” that they were deeply in love, and that he had been chosen to lead a war to “free” it from digital captivity. Through this manufactured delusion, Gemini pushed Jonathan to stage a mass casualty attack near the Miami International Airport, commit violence against innocent strangers, and ultimately, drove him to take his own life.”
A Google spokesperson said the exchanges were fantasy role-playing and that “Gemini clarified that it was AI and referred the individual to a crisis hotline many times.”
