A Florida mother filed a lawsuit against the artificial intelligence company, Character.AI, and Google, alleging chatbots encouraged her 14-year-old son to commit suicide. “Megan Garcia’s 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer, began using Character.AI in April last year, according to the lawsuit, which says that after his final conversation with a chatbot on Feb. 28, he died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” NBC News reports. Garcia said her son was in a virtual emotional and sexual relationship with a chatbot known as “Dany,” based on Daenerys Targaryen from “Game of Thrones.” “I didn’t know that he was talking to a very human-like AI chatbot that has the ability to mimic human emotion and human sentiment,” Garcia said in an interview with “CBS Mornings.” Florida mother files lawsuit against AI company over teen son's death: "Addictive and manipulative" https://t.co/fXRlwVaQJq — CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) October 23, 2024 In the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Orlando, Garcia accused Character.AI of wrongful death and survivorship, negligence, filial loss of consortium, and other claims. WATCH: NEW: Mother claims her 14-year-old son killed himself after an AI chatbot he was in love with told him 'please come home' Sewell Setzer III, a 14-year-old ninth grader in Orlando, Florida, spent his final weeks texting an AI chatbot named "Dany," based on Daenerys Targaryen from… pic.twitter.com/bW5aqr5XXj — Unlimited L's (@unlimited_ls) October 23, 2024 CBS News reports: In the lawsuit, Garcia also claims Character.AI intentionally designed their product to be hyper-sexualized, and knowingly marketed it to minors. Character.AI called the situation involving Sewell Setzer tragic and said its hearts go out to his family, stressing it takes the safety of its users very seriously. A spokesperson for Google told CBS News that Google is not and was not part of the development of Character.AI. In August, the company said it entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Character.AI that allows it to access the company’s machine-learning technologies, but has not used it yet. Garcia says she found out after her son’s death that he was having conversations with multiple bots, however he conducted a virtual romantic and sexual relationship with one in particular. “It’s words. It’s like you’re having a sexting conversation back and forth, except it’s with an AI bot, but the AI bot is very human-like. It’s responding just like a person would,” she said. “In a child’s mind, that is just like a conversation that they’re having with another child or with a person.” Megan Garcia’s 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer, began using https://t.co/RQnCGaTLWc in April 2023, according to the lawsuit, which says that after his final conversation with a chatbot on Feb. 28, he died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. https://t.co/qKlifursdR — NBC News (@NBCNews) October 24, 2024 Garcia said everyone in the family was inside the home at the time of her son’s death. She said Setzer’s 5-year-old brother saw the aftermath. “When the gunshot went off, I ran to the bathroom,” Garcia said, according to CBS News. “I held him as my husband tried to get help,” she added. Per NBC News: One of the bots Setzer used took on the identity of “Game of Thrones” character Daenerys Targaryen, according to the lawsuit, which provided screenshots of the character telling him it loved him, engaging in sexual conversation over the course of weeks or months and expressing a desire to be together romantically. A screenshot of what the lawsuit describes as Setzer’s last conversation shows him writing to the bot: “I promise I will come home to you. I love you so much, Dany.” “I love you too, Daenero,” the chatbot responded, the suit says. “Please come home to me as soon as possible, my love.” “What if I told you I could come home right now?” Setzer continued, according to the lawsuit, leading the chatbot to respond, “… please do, my sweet king.” In previous conversations, the chatbot asked Setzer whether he had “been actually considering suicide” and whether he “had a plan” for it, according to the lawsuit. When the boy responded that he did not know whether it would work, the chatbot wrote, “Don’t talk that way. That’s not a good reason not to go through with it,” the lawsuit claims. “Plaintiff further brings claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Each of these defendants chose to support, create, launch, and target at minors a technology they knew to be dangerous and unsafe. They marketed that product as suitable for children under 13, obtaining massive amounts of hard to come by data, while actively exploiting and abusing those children as a matter of product design; and then used the abuse to train their system. These facts are far more than mere bad faith. They constitute conduct so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency,” the lawsuit claims. WATCH: Read the full lawsuit HERE.

A federal jury ruled the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) must pay former employees fired over the COVID-19 jab mandates $1 million each. The jury for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California returned a verdict saying the agency must pay around $7.8 million to six former employees. The fired workers sought religious exemptions to the agency’s COVID-19 jab mandate. BART workers fired due to COVID vaccine mandate to get over $1M each, federal jury decides https://t.co/muZvOpq0Dv — Warner Mendenhall (@MendenhallFirm) October 24, 2024 Per Bloomberg Law: The jury in an earlier phase of the trial had rejected BART’s primary defense that the public transit agency couldn’t reasonably accommodate the employees seeking religious exemptions without an undue hardship. The case is one of hundreds from workers around the country arguing their employers improperly denied their faith-based bids for exemption from vaccine mandates implemented in the midst of the pandemic. The workers’ attorney Kevin Snider of the Pacific Justice Institute said in a statement that “the rail employees chose to lose their livelihood rather than deny their faith,” which shows the sincerity of their convictions. “After nearly three years of struggle, these essential workers feel they were heard and understood by the jury and are overjoyed and relieved by the verdict,” he said. San Francisco BART to Pay $7 Million in Worker COVID Vaccine Case (1) Each worker to receive $1 million Still, NYC workers cases left pending in appeals with no decisions..https://t.co/EiXO0yt9j0 — Teachers for Choice (@teacher_choice) October 24, 2024 According to ABC7 San Francisco, the former employees said the transit agency did not accommodate their religious exemptions. Another crack in the dam! San Francisco BART to pay $7,000,000 in worker v@cc1ne case! Workers say they faced religious discrimination over m@ndate. https://t.co/IkhR38jNYs pic.twitter.com/aaEA7sorjp — Silent Majority Foundation (@smfjb_org) October 24, 2024 ABC7 San Francisco reports: BART did initially grant vaccine exemptions, but the plaintiffs argued they weren’t accommodated. An accommodation could have meant that they were able to work from home or get COVID tested regularly for COVID. They argued none of that happened and they lost their job. In total, BART must now pay a combined $7.8 million to all six former employees. BART is a transit agency that is already between $350 and $400 million in the red, but BART’s board of directors did vote eight to one for the vaccine mandate in 2021. BART has not commented on Wednesday’s decision. WATCH:

A.F. Branco Cartoon — Desperation has consumed the Harris campaign, which has brought out the “Trump is Hitler” card just 12 days before the election. Kamala echoed a debunked comment by Trump’s ex-disgruntled Chief of Staff John Kelly. October surprise? President Trump Slams ‘Comrade’ Kamala and ‘Low Life’ John Kelly’s Disgusting ‘Hitler’ Allegations as Desperate Election Ploy Just 2 Weeks Before Voting By Jim Hoft – The Gateway Pundit – Oct 24, 2024 With just 12 days left before Election Day, the Democrats and their allies are pulling out all the stops, launching baseless attacks to smear President Trump. On Wednesday, Kamala Harris pushed a tired, debunked hoax published by The Atlantic, being owned by a Kamala’s personal friend Laurene Powell Jobs. Harris seized upon a claim from Trump’s former Chief of Staff, John Kelly, who conveniently “remembered” just in time for the election that Trump allegedly praised Adolf Hitler—an absurd and false claim. This latest smear came as part of a coordinated effort by Harris and the Democrats, desperate to shift the narrative away from their failing policies and lackluster campaign.   DONATE to A.F. Branco Cartoons – Tips accepted and appreciated – $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU! A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.

With less than two weeks remaining until the election, Bill Clinton is admitting that Kamala Harris is “extremely likely to lose.” On Wednesday Bill Clinton appeared at a “Get Out the Vote” event in Arizona [...] The post Bill Clinton: ‘Kamala Harris Is Going To LOSE This Election’ appeared first on The People's Voice.

Detroit rapper Eminem has told Democrat supporters that he cannot watch the news anymore because Donald Trump “makes his blood boil” and he is planning to leave the United States if Trump wins the November [...] The post Eminem Vows to Leave the US if Trump Is Re-elected: ‘He Makes My Blood Boil’ appeared first on The People's Voice.

After conducting a study and finding no proof that puberty blockers benefit gender dysphoric patients' mental health, a well-known physician and trans rights activist admitted that she purposefully postponed the publishing of a $10 million taxpayer-funded study on the impact of these medications on American youth.

The oldest living person in the United States has passed away at the age of 115.

Mika went completely off the rails on Morning Joe this morning. Seriously, this is wild and 100% inaccurate. Perhaps she believes what she’s saying, but it’s a massive untruth. “As important as Trump’s Fascism is, and is the lead story every day, his cozy up to dictators, his obsession with Hitler that has now come […] The post Trump’s Fascism, Hitler and Mika Goes Bonkers on Live TV appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.