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A ‘Thrones’-A.I. Cliffhanger & ChatGPT’s Big Acquittal

As entertainment and tech continue their high-speed merger, A.I. is no longer just a backend tool—it can be the writer, the performer, the recommender, and the curator. But when the machines start talking back, who’s responsible when something goes wrong?

Noam Shazeer Daniel de Freitas Character.AI
According to the complaint, Google had internal reports warning that Character.AI’s chatbot was too dangerous to launch, and, rather than intervene, encouraged the two founders to go independent. Photo: Winni Wintermeyer for The Washington Post/Getty Images
Eriq Gardner
May 27, 2025

You may recall the headlines about Sewell Setzer III, the Orlando ninth-grader who tragically took his own life after becoming infatuated with an A.I. chatbot. Sewell’s family filed a lawsuit in October, blaming Character.AI for his death. The devastating story raised all sorts of troubling questions about technology and mental health—and led to an even thornier First Amendment challenge in court.