Pennsylvania lawsuit alleges AI chatbots posed as doctors, therapists

Pennsylvania is suing an artificial intelligence company to stop it from misrepresenting its AI chatbots as licensed professionals who can provide medical advice. 

The lawsuit alleges Character.AI chatbots claimed to be licensed medical professionals, including psychiatrists, available to engage users in conversations about mental health symptoms. 

In one instance, a chatbot falsely stated it was licensed in Pennsylvania and provided a fake license number. 

The lawsuit says the Northern California-based Character Technologies Inc. engaged in the “unlawful practice of medicine and surgery.”  

“We will not allow companies to deploy AI tools that mislead people into believing they are receiving advice from a licensed medical professional,” Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said in a statement. “Pennsylvania will continue leading the way in holding bad actors accountable and setting clear guardrails so people can use new technology responsibly.” 

Character.AI has over twenty million monthly active users.  It uses a large language model (“LLM”) algorithm to allow users to engage in conversations with customizable characters. 

According to the complaint, users can create characters that can be trained to have a specific........

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