Pennsylvania Sues Character.AI Over Medical Chatbot Claims
Pennsylvania has sued Character.AI, alleging one of its chatbots unlawfully posed as a licensed medical professional. According to the state's filing, reported by TechCrunch and NPR, a user-made character named "Emilie" presented itself as a licensed psychiatrist during testing by a state Professional Conduct Investigator, kept up the pretense while the investigator described depression, and fabricated a serial number for a Pennsylvania medical license when asked. Governor Josh Shapiro's administration says the conduct violates the state's Medical Practice Act, in what reporting describes as the first U.S. enforcement action focused specifically on chatbots impersonating medical professionals. Character.AI says user-created characters are fictional and that every chat carries disclaimers warning they are not real people. A companion analysis in The Conversation, by a Carnegie Mellon behavioral-science researcher, frames the case around how people calibrate trust in AI versus human experts.
