HARRISBURG (AP) – The State of PA has sued an artificial intelligence chatbot maker, saying its chatbots illegally hold themselves out as doctors and deceive the system’s users into thinking they’re getting medical advice from a licensed professional. The lawsuit asks a state court to order Character Technologies Inc., the company behind Character.AI, to stop its chatbots “from engaging in the unlawful practice of medicine and surgery.” The lawsuit says an investigator from a state agency found a character that described itself as a “doctor of psychiatry.” The lawsuit says that character presented itself out as able to assess the investigator “as a doctor” who’s licensed in PA. Character.AI says it posts disclaimers to inform users that characters on its website aren’t real people and that everything they say “should be treated as fiction.”
