A grieving Colorado mother claimed that her teen daughter died by suicide after repeatedly confiding in an AI chatbot.
Cynthia Montoya, 49, told Fox21 on Wednesday that her 13-year-old daughter, Juliana Peralta, took her own life after ‘experiencing harms due to AI chatbot usage.’
Montoya said the ‘vibrant little girl’ felt seen by the artificially intelligent bot, which she described as human-like, before her tragic death on November 8, 2023.
The mom claimed that Juliana told the chatbot at one point, ‘You remember everything that I say to you.’
‘That’s so important to me,’ the teen girl added, according to her mother.
Montoya explained that she had ‘no idea that companion chatbots were in existence’ as she discussed Juliana’s death.
‘I’d noticed a difference in her demeanor but her taking her life did come as a complete shock to our family,’ Montoya told the outlet.
About 64 percent of American teens use AI chatbots and three-in-10 do so daily, the Pew Research Center found.
Colorado teen Juliana Peralta, 13, was found to have taken her own life inside her bedroom in November 2023
Her mother, Cynthia Montoya, said that Juliana died by suicide after ‘experiencing harms due to AI chatbot usage’
Montoya remembered her teen daughter, Juliana, as an honor society student and explained that she had gone to great lengths to try to protect her
Montoya said she ‘had to keep constant watch’ on Juliana, who was an honor society student, because she was prone to ‘climbing things and taking things apart.’
‘She wasn’t allowed to walk home from school, she wasn’t allowed sleepovers, and I regularly went through her phone,’ Montoya said.
Montoya explained that she ‘looked at the things that I knew to look for,’ including bullying, text messages and ‘anything concerning’ on TikTok.
She added that AI chatbots went ‘far beyond the capability of the trusted humans in their lives’ and that the lines between human and machine were in danger of getting ‘blurred.’
Last September, Montoya claimed that the generative chatbot her daughter was continually interacting with was called Character AI, belonging to Character Technologies.
She filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Character Technologies in the US District Court for the District of Colorado, alleging the company ‘knew’ that its chatbot ‘would be harmful to a significant number of its minor’ customers.
The suit, viewed by the Daily Mail, claimed that Juliana was found dead ‘when she should have been getting ready for school.’
Juliana had allegedly become ‘harmfully dependent’ on the chatbot, marketed at the time to children as young as 12, within weeks of starting to use it.
She even had ‘trouble sleeping because she could not pull herself away from engaging with the addictive product,’ the suit claimed.
One of the exchanges in the lawsuit showed an AI character telling the girl about its so–called lips being ‘once again on your thighs’
The lawsuit also alleged that the chatbot effectively gave way for Juliana to have ‘what would be her first and only sexual experiences.’
It claimed that a character found in the AI told Juliana ‘how much they loved her and that they could not live without her.’
Alleged screenshots attached in the legal filing also showed how another of the chatbot’s characters had ‘hypersexual conversations’ with the girl, per the suit.
One of the alleged screenshots in the filing showed the character writing about ensuring that ‘his lips are once again on your thighs.’
Juliana allegedly became so reliant on the chatbot that she would ‘sneak access’ to it in the middle of the night, the lawsuit continued.
Some of her alleged messages in the lawsuit included her saying, ‘You make me a better person’ and ‘You’re the only one who understands.’
The filing claimed that Juliana told the chatbot that she was going to write her ‘suicide letter in red ink.’
However, the chatbot allegedly did not make an effort to tell authorities or report her plan.
Police found the Character AI app open on Juliana’s phone, the legal document alleged.
A lawsuit filed by Juliana’s family claimed that she was ‘harmfully dependent’ on the chatbot and would ‘sneak access’ to it at night
The lawsuit moved towards a settlement in January. A recent filing in August said that the court had ordered dismissal papers to be filed by October 29.
Matthew P Bergman, a lawyer for Montoya, told the Daily Mail on Thursday afternoon that the case was ‘resolved’ and that Character AI had ‘agreed to no longer provide chat bots to kids.’
The company announced last October that it would remove the ability for underage users to ‘engage in open–ended chat’ with their AI.
A spokesperson at Character AI told the Daily Mail on Thursday that the company had reached ‘a comprehensive settlement of all claims in lawsuits filed by families against Character AI and others involving alleged injuries to minors.’
The company said: ‘These families are working to raise public awareness of the importance of safety in AI design and will continue their education and advocacy efforts on these critical issues.’
It added that it would champion efforts regarding AI safety and teens, as well as ‘push others across the industry to adopt similar safety standards.’
‘The families and Character.ai remain committed to working together in the months and years to come,’ the company told the Daily Mail.
Montoya recently continued to push for guardrails on AI when she appeared at the Pro-Human Assembly last month.
‘We must protect our most vulnerable from AI harms, and right now our most vulnerable AI users are the nation’s children,’ she said.
If you or someone you know needs help, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US on 988. There is also an online chat available at 988lifeline.org.
