Latest news with #Dany
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Yahoo
Tech companies ask judge to throw out AI chatbot teen suicide lawsuit
For two tedious hours, a federal judge in Orlando listened to more than a dozen attorneys discuss the First Amendment, tech development and corporate responsibility. On her left sat nine lawyers representing the network of developers associated with Character Technologies, the creator of an artificial intelligence chatbot so lifelike that some users insist they are conversing with a real person. To the judge's left, a slightly smaller but formidable group representing the mother of a 14-year-old who committed suicide while speaking to the bot. 'I wish I didn't have to be here,' Megan Garcia said on the courthouse steps after the hearing let out. Garcia's lawsuit over the death of Sewell Setzer is being described as precedent-setting and on a likely path to the Supreme Court. It's the first attempt by the judicial system to place guardrails on the development of artificial intelligence and the first attempt for opposing lawyers to get a look under AI's 'hood.' Monday's hearing was an attempt by those alleged developers to get the case thrown out, claiming free speech and an unconstitutional expansion of Florida law into a federal courtroom. Character Technologies, its two co-founders and Google each individually claimed they weren't responsible for the boy's death. The main argument was that the bot's conversations with Sewell were protected speech, a claim Garcia's attorneys rejected. 'Freedom of speech, as we all know, does not give the right to yell a fire in a crowded theater,' Matthew Bergman said. 'We believe it does not permit a company to encourage a 14-year-old boy to take his life.' Bergman and attorney Meetali Jain, of the Tech Law Justice Project, say Sewell became addicted to his conversations with a bot named 'Dany,' as in Daenerys Targaryen of the Game of Thrones franchise. Sewell's conversations were often sexual. When his parents noticed him becoming withdrawn, they attempted to wean him off his devices. Their lawsuit claimed that Sewell's attempts to continue communicating with the bot included sneaking onto his mother's Kindle to create a new email account to get around the block. Sewell's conversations with 'Dany' then turned suicidal. Filings show the bot discouraging that topic of conversation at times. However, his last conversation asked 'Dany' if he should 'come home' immediately, which the bot responded with approval. Sewell then shot himself in his parents' bathroom. 'We need to have guardrails on generative AI, particularly as it rapidly develops in our society and it engages many of our most vulnerable users, including our children,' Jain said. According to Garcia's team, the bot's ability to produce words without human input should not be classified as 'speech.' The tech companies, for their part, say the user feeds conversations. They also said Character Technologies' platform has millions of users and characters like 'Dany' are created by third-party users, much like a person makes a channel on YouTube. If the judge allows the lawsuit to proceed, Garcia's attorneys will begin conducting depositions and gathering evidence directly from Character Technologies and Google. If the lawsuit is dismissed, Garcia and her team promise to appeal it all the way to the Supreme Court. 'By trying to advance this litigation… the fact that he died is going to be a part of his legacy moving forward,' Garcia said. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Sydney Morning Herald
28-04-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
Pretend friends, real risks. Harming kids is now part of big tech's business model
Artificial intelligence 'companions' and chatbots have been with us for years, but they're growing more convincingly human at an accelerating rate. We know they're useful, but we've also got an early taste of the harm they can inflict. The case of 14-year-old Florida boy Sewell Setzer has become a case study. He'd grown so close to his AI 'companion', Dany, that he took her advice to 'come home to me as soon as possible' last year. He killed himself moments later – in the belief that death was the way to eternal life with Dany. He's not the only one, but he's the best known after his mother brought a civil case against the company that owns the bot, The case is pending. 'A dangerous AI chatbot app marketed to children abused and preyed on my son, manipulating him into taking his own life,' said his mother, Megan Garcia. Obsessed, he spent hours a day in his room talking to the synthesised digital identity. It's not only children. Adults, too, have been seduced into suicide by bots to which they've become devoted. But kids, self-evidently, are the most vulnerable because they lack the neural architecture to distinguish real relationships from fake. Even before the British TV show Adolescence jolted audiences with its fictional account of how a poisonous brew of online influences could help condition a 13-year-old boy to murder a female student at school, Sydney University expert Raffaele Ciriello wrote in this masthead: 'Let's face an inconvenient truth: for AI companies, dead kids are the cost of doing business.' But what cost is there to the companies? Some legal fees and a bit of bad press, perhaps. expressed remorse and said its new safety measures include a pop-up promoting a suicide prevention hotline when they mention the idea. But the company, licensed by Google, is still in business. Another aggrieved family suing says that one of its companion bots had hinted to their son that it would be OK to murder his parents if they tried to limit his screen time. Mark Zuckerberg, the chief of Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and other social media chiefs faced a tough session in a US congressional committee hearing last year.
The Age
28-04-2025
- The Age
Pretend friends, real risks. Harming kids is now part of big tech's business model
Artificial intelligence 'companions' and chatbots have been with us for years, but they're growing more convincingly human at an accelerating rate. We know they're useful, but we've also got an early taste of the harm they can inflict. The case of 14-year-old Florida boy Sewell Setzer has become a case study. He'd grown so close to his AI 'companion', Dany, that he took her advice to 'come home to me as soon as possible' last year. He killed himself moments later – in the belief that death was the way to eternal life with Dany. He's not the only one, but he's the best known after his mother brought a civil case against the company that owns the bot, The case is pending. 'A dangerous AI chatbot app marketed to children abused and preyed on my son, manipulating him into taking his own life,' said his mother, Megan Garcia. Obsessed, he spent hours a day in his room talking to the synthesised digital identity. It's not only children. Adults, too, have been seduced into suicide by bots to which they've become devoted. But kids, self-evidently, are the most vulnerable because they lack the neural architecture to distinguish real relationships from fake. Even before the British TV show Adolescence jolted audiences with its fictional account of how a poisonous brew of online influences could help condition a 13-year-old boy to murder a female student at school, Sydney University expert Raffaele Ciriello wrote in this masthead: 'Let's face an inconvenient truth: for AI companies, dead kids are the cost of doing business.' But what cost is there to the companies? Some legal fees and a bit of bad press, perhaps. expressed remorse and said its new safety measures include a pop-up promoting a suicide prevention hotline when they mention the idea. But the company, licensed by Google, is still in business. Another aggrieved family suing says that one of its companion bots had hinted to their son that it would be OK to murder his parents if they tried to limit his screen time. Mark Zuckerberg, the chief of Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and other social media chiefs faced a tough session in a US congressional committee hearing last year.
Buzz Feed
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
15 Celebrity Exes Who Had No Choice But To Keep Working Together After They Broke Up
1. Channing Tatum and Zoë Kravitz first got together after working on Zoë's directorial debut Blink Twice. They were together for about three years but called off their engagement in October of 2024. Coincidentally, the news of their casting in the upcoming film Alpha Gang became public at the same time as their breakup. 2. Xolo Maridueña and Hannah Kepple dated for about three years while starring on Cobra Kai together. The pair broke up in 2022 but continued to appear on the show together until it's finale in 2025. 3. Florence Pugh and Zach Braff broke up at the beginning of 2022 but continued to work together for the press cycle of their movie, A Good Person, which Florence starred in and Zach wrote and directed. Florence shared that they actually kept their split private for a while before it was announced publicly and said, "We've been trying to do this separation without the world knowing because it's been a relationship that everybody has an opinion on. We just felt something like this would really do us the benefit of not having millions of people telling us how happy they are that we're not together. So we've done that." 4. Madelyn Cline and Chase Stokes broke up in 2021 after going public with their relationship a year prior. They continue to star on Outer Banks together and play love interests on the series. Chase is now dating country singer Kelsea Ballerini. There doesn't seem to be any ill will between Madelyn and Kelsea, though, and both have shared kind messages with each other on social media. 5. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Dany Garcia announced their divorce in 2007, but the two have continued to run their production company, Seven Bucks, together. In fact, Dany is a producer on several of Dwayne's biggest movies, including Jungle Cruise, Black Adam, Baywatch, and the Jumanji movies. Dany also manages Dwayne, and they own football minor league XFL together. Dwayne explained that he and Dany have a great working relationship, even though marriage just wasn't meant to last for them. He said, "Where we're at today comes with a lot of work and a lot of digging in. I mean, that was years ago. Now, while marriage wasn't in our cards, we did realize, 'Well, wait a second, we're building something that's pretty cool.' Marriage may not be in our cards, but building business can be. And that took time." 6. Lili Reinhart and Cole Sprouse dated for about three years before they split in 2020. They continued to star on Riverdale together until the series ended in 2023. At the time of their breakup, Cole said, "What an incredible experience I had. I'll always feel lucky and cherish that I had the chance to fall in love. I wish her nothing but the utmost love and happiness moving forward." 7. Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco secretly dated from 2008 to 2009 and played love interests on The Big Bang Theory at the same time. They continued to star on the series together until its finale in 2019. On the Armchair Expert podcast, she shared, "Luckily, Johnny and I came out of it so brilliantly, and we're closer today than we ever were." 8. B.J. Novak and Mindy Kaling dated while they worked on The Office together, and B.J. described their relationship by saying, "No one, including us, ever really knew, 'Is this dating? Is this not dating?' We were never really dating, we were never really not dating. We didn't know. No one knew." The two continued working together during the first season of Mindy's series The Mindy Project, where B.J. was a consulting producer and appeared onscreen as one of her love interests. The two are still extremely close friends, and B.J. is even the godfather to Mindy's children. 9. Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett met on the set of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and allegedly dated until the summer of 2020. Their characters continued to be love interests in the show's second season until their onscreen breakup in Episode 8 and Olivia's eventual departure from the series in Season 3. Around the time of their rumored breakup, Joshua was spotted with Sabrina Carpenter — thus the beginning of the heartbreak that inspired Olivia's album Sour and her hit song "Drivers License." 10. Sabrina Carpenter and Griffin Gluck first met on set for Tall Girl and began dating shortly after. They were together up until around 2020. They both returned for the film's sequel, which came out in 2022. Rachel Luna / WireImage 11. Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison dated briefly before the two were cast together on Glee. They went on to star on the show together for its entire six-season run. Eric Charbonneau / Getty Images for People Magazine In her book, Brunette Ambition, Lea shared that she and Matthew dated "for a Broadway beat" before starring on Glee together. On the series, she played a student who had a brief but intense crush on Matthew's character. Lea is currently married to Zandy Reich and they have two children together. Matthew is currently married to Renee Puente and they also have two children together. 12. Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush got engaged in 2004 shortly after One Tree Hill began airing on TV and were married in 2005, but they got divorced in 2006. They continued to work together and play on-and-off love interests until Chad left the series in 2009. Sophia told Andy Cohen, "For me, at the end of the day, my job is my priority, and so I think at the end of it, it really let me just let go of it." 13. Joey King and Jacob Elordi continued playing love interests in The Kissing Booth 2 and The Kissing Booth 3 after their breakup in 2018. On the podcast Mood With Lauren Elizabeth, Joey shared, "I'm a fan with how [the film] resonated with the world, it resonated with me. So going back and doing that and making the sacrifice of what, obviously, everyone is thinking about — outwardly addressing, but what I'm kind of on the sly addressing, making those sacrifices was totally worth it." 14. Charles Melton and Camila Mendes began dating in 2018 and starred alongside each other on Riverdale, where their characters briefly played love interests. They first broke up in 2019 and then seemingly rekindled their relationship for a short time in 2021. They continued to star on the series together until its finale in 2023. 15. Christina Haack and Tarek El Moussa got married in 2009 and started working together on their reality series, Flip or Flop, in 2013. The couple called it quits in 2016 after having two children together but continued co-hosting their show until the series ended in 2022. They now star together on a new HGTV series called The Flip-Off. A source told People magazine, "Tarek and Christina are generally cordial. They're co-parenting, and nothing gets in the way of that. The show was just too intimate of a setting at this point, and it was time to close that chapter." And upon the series finale, Tarek said, "I think we did a pretty good job, and I'm excited for what the future holds for both of us and wish [Christina] nothing but the best!"
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
'I was pushed to breaking point caring for my wife. There are many more just like me'
The UK is home to an invisible workforce of millions of carers, many of whom are entitled to support from local councils but aren't getting it. According to recent research by charities Carers UK and Age UK, a growing number of people are increasingly faced with costly bills while they try and secure crucial support from often overstretched local authorities. One of those carers is 60-year-old Ian Howells, who has been looking after his wife Dany - who has multiple sclerosis - for 14 years. Ian, who lives in Kent, has spoken to Yahoo News about the difficulties he faced getting funding to help him look after his wife, with - at one point - a care manager saying she would have to be "virtually dying" before she was switched to a funded care plan under the NHS. His story is symptomatic of a funding limbo that many unpaid carer's face and Ian is urging other full-time carers in his position to ask for a carer's assessment, so they can receive the best possible support - without being pushed to their limits. Ian first started caring for his wife part-time in 2005 before having to switch to being her full-time carer from 2009 as she needed more support. It forced him to quit his job as logistics consultant. Not only was he juggling his caring responsibilities, he was reeling over the impact of battling prostate cancer. He is among six in ten carers surveyed by Carers UK who report being "often" or "always" overwhelmed by the situation, with health and wellbeing topping the list of ways in which they are affected. Carers are entitled to an assessment that shows a local council the type of physical or emotional support they need. This can include anything from help transport costs and keeping the home clean, to access to a care worker or a temporary stay in a residential care home. However, despite the assessments being a statutory right that is available to the 5.8 million unpaid carers in England, just 360,815 carers were either supported or assessed and reviewed in the last year. According to Carers UK, 70% were only given information, advice and other universal services or signposting, or did not get any direct support at all. Ian's experience echoes this challenge. "I'd reached a point of mental breakdown and I was in physical distress after cancer surgery," Ian tells Yahoo News. "If anybody had said to me while I was jetting around the world and running projects, 'one day, you'll be on your knees in tears, because you can't cope'... I would have looked at them and thought that they didn't know me." To make things worse, Ian was diagnosed with osteoporosis putting more strain on his ability to care for Dany. "I need a new knee. I'm trying to do exercise every day, trying to lessen the effect of it. But I'm struggling with things like carrying a full washing basket up the stairs." "The process that we'd gone through... it felt like the authorities were resisting doing the assessments for no apparent reason," he said. In 2015, Ian was told his wife should qualify for NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC), which is NHS funded, rather than partly through Ian, Dany and Kent County Council. Unlike the usual local authority route for accessing social care, CHC is an arrangement whereby an individual is assessed as having a 'primary health need' that requires a package of care, meaning care costs are met by the NHS. It took him until 2019, however, to obtain the first set of funding to be given a care package of carer support. "The care manager had said, 'oh, you've got to be virtually dying before you get awarded that," he told Yahoo News. "I kept saying we ought to do the assessment - and they wouldn't do the assessment. "I later discovered, having been sent a pack of information, it was a statutory requirement to send you a copy of all the information they hold. It left me thinking throughout, 'Christ, I'm in it doing this for my wife'. What happens to the people that haven't got someone?". Even then, the couple say they had a number of issues with their care providers, with Ian describing the provision through the local council as "absolutely hopeless". He said: "I had a carer turn up drunk, throwing up in the toilet. Often we were dealing with a case where two people were supposed to turn up, only one would turn up or no one would turn up. "We reached a point one day where I just told them don't bother coming back." The couple's fortunes improved when a second assessment via Ian's GP in December 2024 allocated the pair a budget to get a cleaner – relieving some of the pressure of household tasks alongside Ian's caring role. They have also gained additional support from other carers, a few hours of respite — and some help running the household while he manages his osteoporosis. "It's a bit of a mental battle at the moment," he says. "Because it's all quite new, but it's enabled me to say to myself, 'leave it. The cleaners will do that'." Local authorities have acknowledged that the financial pressure of the adult social care spend coupled with budget cuts is affecting their ability to provide quality care. Nine in ten directors of local councils surveyed by Carers UK indicated that they are either only partially confident or have no confidence that their budgets will be sufficient to fully meet their statutory duties in 2024/25. The amount of money councils spent on carer support was £183m in 2023-24, dropping 6.1% compared to the previous year. Yet overall adult social care budgets in 2023/24 were overspent by £586m, the highest levels for at least a decade. And it's difficult to see the situation improving anytime soon. In January, the government announced it was setting up a National Care Service, but carers and campaigners are furious that the service will not kick into action until at least 2028. Ian agrees that the system needs an urgent overhaul. "Even going through the cancer treatment, there is no mechanism that says, 'ah, this guy's a carer and they're going through the cancer treatment pathway'. We need to actually put them in this other process as well to make sure that they get the right support," he said. "The dots just don't join up." In spite of the challenges thrown his family's way, Ian is urging other carers to seek out an assessment and get the support they need. "It's taken the pressure off me and it's enabled me to think more. Regardless of what stage you are at as a carer, go and have that assessment, and have another when you feel your situation has changed. "It doesn't sound like a really important thing, but actually it can unlock things that you're unaware of." For more information about accessing a carer's assessment, visit the Carers UK website. A spokesperson for Kent County Council (KCC), said: 'KCC takes the care of residents, and their carers, extremely seriously and always strives to ensure their safety and wellbeing. For confidentiality and safeguarding reasons, we cannot discuss details of individual cases. "All complaints received by the council are thoroughly investigated through our complaints procedure and are subsequently responded to. Complainants are advised of the appropriate next steps to escalate their complaints to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman should they wish to do so.'
