Microsoft has taken legal action against a group the company claims intentionally developed and used tools to bypass the safety guardrails of its cloud AI products. According to a complaint filed by the company in December in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, a group of 10 unnamed defendants allegedly used […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Hugging Face, the AI developer platform, has settled a lawsuit against Korean AI startup FriendliAI, which had accused Hugging Face of infringing on one of its patents. Per a filing on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Delaware, FriendliAI reached a “confidential agreement” with Hugging Face on January 8 and […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A federal judge this week rejected Google's motion to throw out a class-action lawsuit alleging that it invaded the privacy of users who opted out of functionality that records a users' web and app activities. A jury trial is scheduled for August 2025 in US District Court in San Francisco.
The lawsuit concerns Google's Web & App Activity (WAA) settings, with the lead plaintiff representing two subclasses of people with Android and non-Android phones who opted out of tracking. "The WAA button is a Google account setting that purports to give users privacy control of Google's data logging of the user's web app and activity, such as a user's searches and activity from other Google services, information associated with the user's activity, and information about the user's location and device," wrote US District Judge Richard Seeborg, the chief judge in the Northern District Of California.
Google says that Web & App Activity "saves your activity on Google sites and apps, including associated info like location, to give you faster searches, better recommendations, and more personalized experiences in Maps, Search, and other Google services." Google also has a supplemental Web App and Activity setting that the judge's ruling refers to as "(s)WAA."
© Getty Images | Josh Edelson
Counsel for plaintiffs in a copyright lawsuit filed against Meta allege that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave the green light to the team behind the company’s Llama AI models to use a dataset of pirated e-books and articles for training. The case, Kadrey v. Meta, is one of many against tech giants developing AI that […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The former chief executive of the parent company of MoviePass, Theodore Farnsworth, pleaded guilty to charges of securities fraud and conspiracy after being accused of misleading investors over the service’s “unlimited plan.” Farnsworth also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud as the chief executive of Vinco Ventures, a publicly traded company. Helios & […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Ryanair announced a clampdown on passenger misconduct as it revealed it was suing someone it accused of disrupting a flight and forcing it to divert.
The budget airline said it wants to claim over 15,000 euros, around $15,500, in damages, having filed proceedings in the Irish Circuit Court.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the airline said it would now take action against "disruptive passengers personally" in a "major misconduct clamp down."
It added it would "continue to take decisive action to combat unruly passenger behavior."
In the statement, it said that the incident occurred on April 9, 2024, on a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote — a popular vacation destination in Spain's Canary Islands.
The flight, with 160 passengers on board, diverted to Porto, Portugal, and was delayed overnight, the airline said.
The airline accused the passenger of "inexcusable behavior" but did not elaborate on what they had specifically done.
A Ryanair spokesperson said the incident cost the airline 15,000 euros for overnight accommodation, passenger expenses, and landing costs.
"It is unacceptable that passengers — many of whom are heading away with family or friends to enjoy a relaxing summer holiday — are suffering unnecessary disruption and reduced holiday time as a result of one unruly passenger's behavior," the spokesperson said.
"This demonstrates just one of the many consequences that passengers who disrupt flights will face as part of Ryanair's zero-tolerance policy, and we hope this action will deter further disruptive behavior on flights so that passengers and crew can travel in a comfortable and respectful environment," they added.
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Kjersti Flaa, a Norwegian journalist who helped fuel a backlash against Blake Lively in the summer, denies being part of an alleged smear campaign against the actor.
In August, Lively was promoting her latest movie "It Ends With Us," which was overshadowed by rumors that she and her co-star and the film's director Justin Baldoni had fallen out. It culminated in a widespread backlash against Lively.
Lively alleged in a legal complaint filed Friday that Baldoni, his publicists, and the production company orchestrated a smear campaign against her. She accused his team of enacting a "multi-tiered" plan to "destroy" her reputation to stop complaints she made about Baldoni's behavior on the film's set from being made public.
Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni and his company Wayfarer Studios, said in a statement that the claims made in Lively's complaint were "categorically false."
The lawsuit also briefly mentions a video Flaa shared on YouTube at the height of the backlash, titled "The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job." The video, which went viral in August, shows Lively giving a hostile response after Flaa congratulates her on her "little bump" in a 2016 interview.
On Saturday, Flaa denied claims she worked with the team Lively alleged carried out the smear campaign after the lawsuit and a New York Times article connected her to it.
"This is what I do for a living. I would never accept money to jeopardize my integrity as a journalist," Flaa said in a YouTube video.
Flaa said she wasn't aware of the backlash against Lively and posted the video because she didn't like "It Ends With Us," had a bad experience with Lively, and "had enough of Hollywood."
"I know nothing about Justin Baldoni. I know nothing about his PR team, and I definitely would never work with a PR team under any circumstances to put hate out there on the internet against someone or to smear someone. I would never ever do that," Flaa said, adding that she thought the messages sent by members of Baldoni's team used in the lawsuit were "disgusting."
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images
Flaa said Lively should take accountability for her "tone-deaf" promotion of "It Ends With Us," such as not talking about the domestic violence element of the story, which fueled the backlash over the summer. The film is about a florist who ends up in an abusive relationship.
Business Insider reached out to reps for Lively and Baldoni but didn't hear back.
In Lively's lawsuit, she said that the cast was contractually obligated to follow a marketing plan created by Sony Pictures Entertainment, the distributor of the film, to avoid talking in a way that made the movie appear "sad."
Flaa ended the video by inviting Lively to her show.
However, by Monday, she had changed her tune when she posted another video in which she accused Lively's team of trying to undermine her credibility to rebuild the actor's reputation.
Flaa said she has received hate mail and accusations that she was being paid to "smear other women."
"I just don't want to be a part of this whole mess. U never asked to be a part of it," she said. "So please stop spreading lies about me."
Representatives for Lively and Baldoni did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Gotham/WireImage/Getty Images
In a new legal complaint, Blake Lively said that her "It Ends with Us" costar, Justin Baldoni, who also directed and produced the film, conspired to damage her reputation and credibility.
The complaint also mentions Taylor Swift and Hailey Bieber.
Lively named Baldoni and six other defendants in her complaint, including the CEO and cofounder of his production studio, Wayfarer Studios. She also named communications crisis manager Melissa Nathan of The Agency Group PR and Baldoni's publicist, Jennifer Abel.
In the complaint, Lively said Baldoni and his team created a "multi-tiered plan" using "social manipulation" to "destroy" her reputation.
"This plan went well beyond standard crisis PR. What Ms. Nathan proposed included a practice known as 'Astroturfing,' which has been defined as 'the practice of publishing opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group,'" according to the complaint.
The complaint says that Baldoni and his team discussed controversies around Swift and Bieber as strategic suggestions while conspiring against Lively.
Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, said Lively's complaint was a "desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation."
Andreas Rentz/TAS24
Nathan's communications company shared a "Scenario Planning" document with Baldoni and others that outlined potential strategies "should [Ms. Lively] and her team make her grievances public," the complaint says.
The complaint includes a copy of that document, which Lively's attorneys obtained through a civil subpoena.
The planning document discussed what Baldoni's team could do if Lively's husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, publicly defended her against critics. It included a reference to Swift, who is a friend of Lively. The pair have attended Kansas City Chiefs football games together and have been photographed by paparazzi while hanging out.
"As part of this, our team can also explore planting stories about the weaponization of feminism and how people in BL's circle, like Taylor Swift, have been accused of utilizing these tactics to 'bully' into getting what they want," the planning document says, according to the complaint.
Karwai Tang/Getty Images
Lively's complaint also contained screenshots of text message conversations between Baldoni and his team, which were also obtained through a civil subpoena. According to the complaint, Baldoni sent a text message to his publicist, Abel, in early August.
"A few days later, on August 5, 2024, Mr. Baldoni set the narrative for the social media campaign, sending Ms. Abel a screenshot of a thread on X that had accused another female celebrity of bullying women," the complaint said. "Mr. Baldoni stated, 'this is what we would need.'"
The social media post included two pictures of Bieber and insinuated she had bullied other women. That narrative gained traction on social media in 2023 and resulted in widespread backlash against Bieber.
A representative for Lively referred Business Insider to a statement she shared with The New York Times.
"I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted," she said.
Lively also said neither she nor her representatives planted negative stories about Baldoni or Wayfarer Studios.
Baldoni's attorney said the accusations in Lively's complaint were "completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media."
Representatives for Bieber and Swift did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images for Sony Pictures
Colleen Hoover, the bestselling author of "It Ends with Us," has thrown her support behind Blake Lively after Lively sued her costar, Justin Baldoni, for sexual harassment, retaliation, and coordinating attempts to damage her reputation.
In an Instagram Stories post, Hoover linked out to a New York Times report on the situation and wrote: "@blakelively, you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met."
"Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt," she added, possibly referencing Lively's character Lily Bloom's profession as a florist.
In the complaint, obtained by Business Insider, Lively said she had attended a meeting with Baldoni — who also directed the movie adaptation of Hoover's novel — and producer Jamey Heath during filming to address the "hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production of the Film."
The meeting is said to have resulted in all parties agreeing to a number of stipulations, including "no more showing nude videos or images of women, including the producer's wife," to Lively or her employees.
It also required "no more mention of Mr. Baldoni or Mr. Heath's previous 'pornography addiction' or BL's lack of pornography consumption to BL or to other crew members," the complaint said.
The suit goes on to accuse Baldoni and his team of running a smear campaign against Lively.
Lively faced backlash during the film's promotional tour, with many social media users criticizing her lighthearted marketing approach. Baldoni, on the other hand, received praise for highlighting the serious topics raised in the movie.
Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni and his company, Wayfarer Studios, said in a statement that the claims made in the complaint were "categorically false" and "intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media."
"It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation, which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions," the statement said.
Reports in Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter said Baldoni has been dropped by his agency, WME, following Lively's complaint.
Business Insider has contacted Freedman and Wayfarer Studios for comment.
Jeff Spicer/NBC/Getty Images
"It Ends with Us" star Blake Lively has filed a legal complaint against the film's director and her costar, Justin Baldoni, for sexual harassment.
Lively and Baldoni dominated entertainment headlines this summer as they promoted "It Ends with Us," a romantic drama based on Colleen Hoover's book. However, much of the attention shifted from the film's premiere to the tension between Lively and Baldoni. Fans online said they noticed the pair's strain during the press tour. By the press tour's end, Lively was navigating a negative backlash.
Lively, who produced the film alongside Baldoni's Wayfarer Studios, played Lily Bloom. Baldoni played Ryle Kincaid and directed the film.
Lively's complaint said Baldoni engaged in sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, inflicted "emotional distress," and conspired to damage her public reputation. It named six other defendants, including Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath and cofounder Steve Sarowitz. Crisis communications professional Melissa Nathan, publicist Jennifer Abel, and a Texas-based contractor named Jed Wallace were also named.
"Ms. Lively never sought out conflict with Wayfarer, Ms. Baldoni, or Mr. Heath, but instead consistently attempted to speak up for a safe and respectful workplace privately in the hopes of protecting herself, as well as the cast and crew, without jeopardizing a film that she believed could make a difference in people's lives," the complaint says. "In response, Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, and those working for them, sought to destroy Ms. Lively and anyone else who knew the truth."
Here's a breakdown of the five biggest bombshells in Lively's complaint.
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
The complaint says she attended an "all hands" meeting with Baldoni, Heath, and others in January to discuss the "hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production of the film." Her husband, Ryan Reynolds, also attended the meeting.
"Ms. Lively was forced to address concerns about Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath's misconduct with them directly and began doing so months before filming began," the complaint says. "The concerns she raised were not only for herself but for the other female cast and crew, some of whom had also spoken up."
The meeting resulted in a list of behaviors that Baldoni and Heath agreed to stop, including "showing nude videos or images of women, including the producer's wife, to BL and/or her employees."
Other behaviors the men agreed to cease were mentioning their "previous pornography addiction or BL's lack of pornography consumption" and "descriptions of their genitalia," according to the complaint.
The agreed-upon behaviors were compiled into a document that was shared with Wayfarer Studios, which said it found "most of them not only reasonable but also essential for the benefit of all parties involved," according to the complaint.
Cindy Ord/Getty Images
Baldoni added improvised sexual content and nude scenes to "It Ends with Us" in "highly unsettling ways," the complaint says, including an on-camera orgasm, without Lively's knowledge or consent.
"When Ms. Lively objected to these additions, Mr. Baldoni insisted he had added them because he was making the film 'through the female gaze,'" according to the complaint. "Although he agreed to remove the scenes, he made a last-ditch attempt to keep one in which the couple orgasm together on their wedding night, which he said was important to him because he and his partner climax simultaneously during intercourse."
"Mr. Baldoni then intrusively asked Ms. Lively whether she and her husband climax simultaneously during intercourse, which Ms. Lively found invasive and refused to discuss," the complaint says.
The complaint also says Baldoni urged Lively to "simulate full nudity" while filming a scene in which her character gives birth, saying it's "not normal" for women to wear their hospital gowns while giving birth. Although Lively disagreed, the complaint says she compromised and agreed to be nude from below the chest down.
Neither Baldoni nor Heath closed the set before filming the scene, according to the complaint, allowing "non-essential crew to pass through while Ms. Lively was mostly nude with her legs spread wide in stirrups and only a small piece of fabric covering her genitalia."
Heath also showed Lively and her assistant a video of his wife giving birth that Lively initially believed was pornography, the complaint says.
"Ms. Lively was alarmed and asked Mr. Heath if his wife knew he was sharing the video, to which he replied, 'She isn't weird about this stuff,' as if Ms. Lively was weird for not welcoming it," the complaint said.
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
In the complaint, Lively said she and other cast members promoted "It Ends with Us" according to a "Marketing Plan" created by the film's distributor, Sony Pictures Entertainment. That plan encouraged the cast to emphasize her character's "strength and resilience as opposed to describing the film as a story about domestic violence" to avoid talking points that could make the film "feel sad."
Lively said that Baldoni "abruptly pivoted away" from the plan, promoting the domestic violence storyline of the film and what the complaint described as "survivor content."
Consumers criticized Lively's marketing approach during the press tour, which resulted in social media backlash toward her and her brands. Baldoni did not experience the same disapproval from audiences.
"What the public did not know was that Mr. Baldoni and his team did so in an effort to explain why many of the Film's cast and crew had unfollowed Mr. Baldoni on social media and were not appearing with him in public," the complaint said.
John Nacion/Getty Images
In the complaint, Lively said Baldoni's decision to switch marketing strategies was the start of a "multi-tiered plan" using "social manipulation" to ultimately "destroy" her public reputation.
Baldoni hired Melissa Nathan, a crisis communications specialist from The Agency Group PR, on July 31 at the suggestion of his publicist, Jennifer Abel.
"What Ms. Nathan proposed included a practice known as 'Astroturfing,' which has been defined as 'the practice of publishing opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group," the complaint said.
The complaint includes screenshots of text messages that Lively's attorneys say are between Abel and Nathan. In one, Abel tells Nathan that Baldoni "wants to feel like she can be buried," in a reference to Lively.
In another one, Baldoni sent Abel a screenshot of a social media post about Hailey Bieber facing bullying allegations in 2023.
"This is what we would need," Baldoni wrote in the text message, according to the complaint.
Baldoni and his team would "feed pieces of this manufactured content to unwitting reporters, making content go viral in order to influence public opinion and thereby cause an organic pile-on," the complaint says.
In the following weeks, news outlets published numerous stories about the "backlash" Lively faced from fans online during the film's press tour.
"To safeguard against the risk of Ms. Lively ever revealing the truth about Mr. Baldoni, the Baldoni-Wayfarer team created, planted, amplified, and boosted content designed to eviscerate Ms. Lively's credibility," the complaint said.
Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images
Baldoni was "desperate to suppress any suggestion that he engaged in inappropriate conduct, much less sexually harassing conduct, because it would entirely undermine his carefully curated public image as a feminist ally," the complaint says.
The document referenced a 2018 TED Talk Baldoni gave entitled "Why I'm Done Being 'Man Enough" and other similar content.
"In sum, Mr. Baldoni has crafted a public image of himself as not just an ally, but also a fierce advocate for women," the complaint says. "Contrary to this image, as set forth in detail above, Mr. Baldoni has spent the last several months and significant resources on his goal of wanting to 'bury' and 'destroy' Ms. Lively for raising concerns about his and his CEO's harassing behavior and other disturbing conduct."
Lia Toby/Getty Images, James Devaney/Getty Images
Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, said the complaint's claims were "categorically false."
"It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation, which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions," the statement read.
Freedman's statement called the Lively's claims "completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media."
The statement said Wayfarer Studios chose to hire Nathan before the film's marketing campaign "due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not show up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met."
Lively shared a statement with The New York Times, saying, "I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted."
Lively told the outlet that neither she nor her representatives ever spread negative information about Baldoni or Wayfarer Studios.
Jeff Spicer/NBC/Getty Images
Blake Lively is suing her "It Ends with Us" costar, Justin Baldoni, for sexual harassment, retaliation, and coordinating attempts to damage her reputation.
The hype around "It Ends with Us" was intense ahead of the film's August release, but much of the attention focused on the working relationship between its stars, Lively and Baldoni.
Lively played Lily Bloom, and Baldoni played Ryle Kincaid. Baldoni also directed the film, and his company, Wayfarer Studios, produced it.
Lively said in the legal complaint, obtained by Business Insider, that she attended an "all hands" meeting with Baldoni and "It Ends with Us" producer Jamey Heath during filming to address the "hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production of the Film." Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds, also attended the meeting.
"Ms. Lively was forced to address concerns about Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath's misconduct with them directly, and began doing so months before filming began," according to Lively's complanit. "The concerns she raised were not only for herself, but for the other female cast and crew, some of whom had also spoken up."
The meeting ended with all parties agreeing to a code of conduct for on-set behavior, including "no more showing nude videos or images of women, including the producer's wife," to Lively or her employees. The agreement also required "no more mention of Mr. Baldoni or Mr. Heath's previous 'pornography addiction' or BL's lack of pornography consumption to BL or to other crew members."
Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images
Lively says in the complaint that another issue arose between her and Baldoni after filming due to differing marketing strategies. Lively adhered to a "marketing plan" that focused on her character's "strength and resilience as opposed to describing the film as a story about domestic violence."
Baldoni, however, "abruptly" switched marketing strategies before the film and focused on the domestic violence aspect, according to the complaint.
During the film's press tour, social media users criticized Lively's lighthearted marketing approach, which led to a wave of backlash. In contrast, fans sided with Baldoni's approach and he emerged relatively unscathed by the fallout.
Lively said in the complaint that Baldoni and his team engaged in "social manipulation" to "destroy" her reputation through a "sophisticated press and digital plan in retaliation for Ms. Lively exercising her legally protected right to speak up about their misconduct on the set, with the additional objective of intimidating her and anyone else from revealing in public what actually occurred."
The complaint included a series of text messages, including some between Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan. Abel is a publicist who worked with Baldoni. Nathan is a crisis communications specialist for The Agency Group PR LLC, which Baldoni retained in early August.
In one message shared with Business Insider by a representative for Lively, Abel wrote to Nathan that Baldoni "wants to feel like she can be buried," referring to Lively.
John Nacion/Getty Images
Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, said in a statement that claims made in Lively's complaint were "categorically false."
"It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation, which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions," the statement said.
The statement added: "These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media."
Freedman's statement said Wayfarer Studios decided to hire Nathan before the film's marketing campaign "due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not show up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met."
A representative for Lively referred BI to a statement shared with The New York Times on Saturday.
"I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted," the statement said.
She also told the outlet that neither she nor her representatives ever spread negative stories about Baldoni or Wayfarer Studios.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Four employees have sued Rivian in separate lawsuits this year over allegations they were harassed, in some cases by top executives, and that the company’s leadership did little to address their concerns, according to a TechCrunch review of court records. Rivian has also reached settlements in three other harassment and discrimination cases, TechCrunch has learned. […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
OpenAI fired back at billionaire Elon Musk on Friday, publishing a series of emails and texts that the company claims show Musk’s lawsuit against it is misleading. Musk’s legal battle with OpenAI, which has been going on for months now, at its core accuses the company of abandoning its original nonprofit mission to make the […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Winni Wintermeyer/Getty Images
The AI startup Character.AI is facing a second lawsuit, with the latest legal claim saying its chatbots "abused" two young people.
The suit, bought by two separate families in Texas, seeks damages from the startup and codefendant Google for what it calls the "serious, irreparable, and ongoing abuses" of an 11-year-old and 17-year-old.
Lawyers for the families say a chatbot on Character.AI's platform told one of the young people to engage in self-harm and encouraged him to carry out violence against his parents.
One teenager, identified as J.F. in the lawsuit, was told by a Character.AI chatbot that his parents imposing screen limits on him constituted serious child abuse, lawyers say. The bot then encouraged the teen to fight back and suggested that killing his parents could be a reasonable response, per the lawsuit.
The civil suit also says the young users were approached by characters that would "initiate forms of abusive, sexual encounters, including rough or non-consensual sex and incest" and, at the time, "made no distinction between minor or adult users."
The lawyers allege that "the app maker knowingly designed, operated, and marketed a dangerous and predatory product to children."
Camille Carlton, the policy director at the Center for Humane Technology, said in a statement that the case "demonstrates the risks to kids, families, and society as AI developers recklessly race to grow user bases and harvest data to improve their models."
"Character.AI pushed an addictive product onto the market with total disregard for user safety," she said.
A spokesperson for Character.AI told BI that it did not comment on pending litigation.
"Our goal is to provide a space that is both engaging and safe for our community. We are always working toward achieving that balance, as are many companies using AI across the industry," the spokesperson said.
"As part of this, we are creating a fundamentally different experience for teen users from what is available to adults. This includes a model specifically for teens that reduces the likelihood of encountering sensitive or suggestive content while preserving their ability to use the platform."
The new case is the second lawsuit filed against Character.AI by lawyers affiliated with the Social Media Victims Law Center and the Tech Justice Law Project.
In October, Megan Garcia filed a lawsuit against Character.AI, Google, and Alphabet after her 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer III, died by suicide moments after talking to one of the startup's chatbots. Garcia's suit accuses the companies of negligence, wrongful death, and deceptive trade practices.
Meetali Jain, the director of the Tech Justice Law Project and an attorney on both cases, told BI the new suit showed harms caused by Character.AI were "systemic in nature."
"In many respects, this new lawsuit is similar to the first one. Many of the claims are the same, really drawing from consumer protection and product liability legal frameworks to assert claims," she said.
The new lawsuit builds on the first by asking the court to shut down the platform until the issues can be resolved.
"The suite of product changes that Character.AI announced as a response to the previous lawsuit have, time and time again, been shown to be inadequate and inconsistently enforced. It's easy to jailbreak the changes that they supposedly have made," Jain said.
Both suits named Google and its parent company, Alphabet, as defendants. Google did not respond to a request for comment from BI on the most recent case.
Character.AI's founders, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, worked together at Google before leaving to launch the startup. In August, Google rehired them in a deal The Wall Street Journal later reported was worth $2.7 billion.
The money was used to buy shares from Character.AI's investors and employees, fund the startup's continued operations, and ultimately bring Shazeer and De Freitas back into the fold, the Journal reported.
"Google and Character AI are completely separate, unrelated companies and Google has never had a role in designing or managing their AI model or technologies, nor have we used them in our products," said José Castaneda, a Google spokesperson.
"User safety is a top concern for us, which is why we've taken a cautious and responsible approach to developing and rolling out our AI products, with rigorous testing and safety processes."
Another attempt to get a class action-style privacy damages case to stick against Google has failed in the U.K. after the Court of Appeal refused to overturn an earlier dismissal. The lawsuit concerned the misuse of health records for some 1.6 million patients whose information was passed to Google’s AI division, DeepMind, back in 2015 […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
A U.S. appeals court has overturned a decision in an antitrust lawsuit against Meta, which was filed in in late 2021 by the long-shuttered social app Phhhoto. In court, the startup alleged that Meta violated U.S. antitrust law by copying its core features and suppressing competition. U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in 2023 granted Meta’s […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Monday announced that it’s sending the first round of payments to consumers tricked by Fortnite maker Epic Games into making unwanted purchases, with refunds totaling over $72 million. The settlement, first announced in December 2022 and finalized in March 2023, fined the game $245 million for its “counterintuitive, inconsistent, […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
ByteDance and TikTok filed an emergency motion on Monday asking an appeals court to temporally block the law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. unless the social network divests from Chinese ownership by January 19. The companies are asking for the hold in order to give the Supreme Court a chance to assess the […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
