Individual Action
Garcia v. Character Technologies
Megan Garcia v. Character Technologies, Inc., Noam Shazeer, Daniel De Freitas Adiwardana, Google LLC, and Alphabet Inc.
Where it stands
On May 21, 2025, Judge Anne C. Conway granted in part and denied in part defendants' motion to dismiss, allowing the strict product liability, negligence, wrongful death and Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act claims to proceed. The court declined at the pleading stage to hold that Character.AI's chatbot output is protected speech under the First Amendment, while permitting the company to assert its users' First Amendment interests. In early January 2026 the parties reported a settlement in principle and the court dismissed the case, with a period allowed to finalize terms or reopen for good cause. Terms were not disclosed.
Key ruling
May 21, 2025 order on motion to dismiss (M.D. Fla., Conway, J.): the court was 'not prepared to hold that Character A.I.'s output is speech' entitled to First Amendment protection at this stage, and allowed product liability and negligence theories to proceed against an AI chatbot for the first time.
Note on this record
Settlement terms are confidential; the dismissal is subject to finalization and the case could theoretically be reopened for good cause. Filing date is reported variously as October 22 or 23, 2024.The record
- Court
- U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida (Orlando Division)
- Case number
- 6:24-cv-01903
- Filed
- 2024-10-23
- Defendants
- Character Technologies, Inc. (Character.AI) · Noam Shazeer · Daniel De Freitas Adiwardana · Google LLC · Alphabet Inc.
- Plaintiffs
- Mother suing individually and as personal representative of the estate of her 14-year-old son
- Technology at issue
- Character.AI
- Relief sought
- Compensatory and punitive damages, disgorgement of unjust enrichment, and injunctive relief requiring product design changes and deletion of models allegedly trained on minors' data
- Counsel of record
- Social Media Victims Law Center · Tech Justice Law Project · Center for Humane Technology (technical consultant)
Claims pleaded
Sources (4)
- Megan Garcia v. Character Technologies, et al. — case trackerTech Policy Press · 2025
- In lawsuit over teen's death, judge rejects arguments that AI chatbots have free-speech rightsU.S. News / Associated Press · 2025-05-21
- Google and Character.AI agree to settle lawsuit linked to teen suicideJURIST · 2026-01
- Character.AI, Google Agree to Settle Teen Chatbot Harm LawsuitsBloomberg Law · 2026-01
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