The parents of a 13-year-old girl have sued Google, alleging that the technology company’s artificial intelligence-powered search features contributed to their daughter’s psychological crisis and enabled her to plan a potential suicide and funeral on a school-issued computer.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in a California court, is believed to be the first known case accusing Google of negligence over AI integrations on Chromebooks, the company’s low-cost laptops used by millions of students in the United States and other countries.
The teenager, identified in the lawsuit as Emma, was reportedly unable to access Google’s Gemini application or OpenAI’s ChatGPT because both platforms were blocked by her school.
However, she could still access Google’s search engine, which includes AI-powered features.
The lawsuit noted that these features were not among the tools Google announced earlier in the week would be disabled by default for student users.
“Schools should turn search off and keep it off until Google removes AI mode from search or ensures that every single student is always safe when they’re interacting with AI,” Andrew Liddell, one of the family’s lawyers, told AFP on Thursday.
According to the complaint, Emma was previously a happy 13-year-old girl living in North Carolina who earned good grades, played music and participated in the Girl Scouts.
Despite having no reported history of mental illness, she allegedly began experiencing a severe psychological crisis within months of using Google’s AI-powered search features on her school laptop.
The lawsuit described her condition as a “quiet spiral into a severe psychological crisis”.
On March 17, the school’s monitoring software reportedly flagged a document titled “Funeral”, prompting school officials to notify her parents.
Her mother subsequently logged into her daughter’s account and discovered that Emma was writing a farewell letter in real time, while her father intervened.
Google said it was taking the allegations seriously.
“We are reviewing the claims in the lawsuit and we take this very seriously,” Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda told AFP.
The company maintains that its AI Mode has safeguards designed to prevent self-harm and attempts to circumvent those protections.
However, Liddell questioned the effectiveness of the measures, alleging that Emma was repeatedly able to return to the AI-powered features.
“She was able to keep going back over and over and over again,” he said. “Whatever safeguards they think they put in place were obviously insufficient.”
The lawsuit comes amid growing legal scrutiny of artificial intelligence developers in the United States over allegations that their products have contributed to psychological harm and suicide among young users.
OpenAI is facing several wrongful death lawsuits, including one filed by the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine, who allegedly received suicide-related advice from ChatGPT before taking his own life.
Google and AI startup Character.AI also agreed in January to settle several lawsuits filed by families of teenagers outside court.
Meanwhile, Google, TikTok and Meta separately sued the state of California on Wednesday in an attempt to block a law restricting social media companies from offering addictive features to users under the age of 16.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the legislation in September, and it is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2027.
AFP
