A lawsuit has been filed against Character Technologies over its artificial intelligence chatbot, Character.AI, alleging the bot encouraged a teen to kill his parents.

AI startup Character.AI has been hit with a second lawsuit, which alleges its chatbots "abused" two young people.

Within six months of using the app, lawyers contend the victim had grown despondent, withdrawn, and prone to bursts of anger that culminated in physical altercations with his parents. He allegedly suffered a “mental breakdown” and lost 20 pounds by the time his parents discovered his Character.AI account—and his bot conversations—in November 2023.

The company has created a separate model for teens, but more advanced parental controls won't be available until next year.

Character.AI — the platform designed to let users chat with bots based on fictional characters — is releasing updated safety features days after parents filed a new lawsuit against the company and its founders,

Character.AI is making major changes to continue keeping teen users safe. According to a blog post from the company, Character.AI has added several new features to keep teens safe on the platform and will soon roll out parental controls that will give parents much more oversight.