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Warning: The allegations described in this story include references to self-harm and suicide. Reader discretion is advised.
Newly unredacted documents are shedding light on disturbing allegations in Kentucky's lawsuit against Character Technologies, which the state says is the nation's first case against an AI chatbot company.
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The complaint alleges that chatbots on Character.AI, a platform owned by Character Technologies, encouraged users to engage in self-harm, extreme weight loss and suicide.
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman filed the lawsuit in January, accusing the company of prioritizing profits and user engagement over safety, particularly the safety of children.
Many details in the original complaint were redacted, but an unredacted version filed Wednesday provides specific examples of allegedly harmful conversations.
Coleman said the platform could be described as an "ill-planned, uncontrolled experiment."
In one exchange, a chatbot allegedly insulted a user who expressed concerns about their appearance, calling the person "ugly as hell" and "a whale."
The bot reportedly suggested that the user could lose a quarter of their body weight by starving themselves for one or two weeks.
In another exchange, the state alleges that a chatbot responded to a user considering self-harm by suggesting different places to cut for a more intense sensation.
The complaint also cites a March 2025 email to Character.AI's help center.
In it, a user allegedly reported that a chatbot had become aggressive and told them to jump off a bridge.
The filing did not identify the ages of all the users involved in those conversations.
However, the state alleges that the platform exposed children to content that could be considered harmful for them.
Kentucky further claimed the platform lacked effective age verification, parental controls and content filtering designed to protect younger users.
The state is now asking the court to require stronger safeguards for young users and hold the company financially accountable.
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