Parents Sue Google Over AI-Assisted Suicide Planning by 13-Year-Old

WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (OPA) — The lawsuit, filed on Monday, November 2 in a California court, marks the first legal action accusing Google of negligence over AI-powered search tools accessed via a school-issued Chromebook. The 13-year-old girl, identified as Emma, could not access dedicated applications like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini because her school had blocked them. However, she retained access to Google's standard search engine, which incorporates AI-driven features.

According to court documents, Emma had no prior history of mental illness before beginning a rapid psychological decline within months of using the search engine. On March 17, school monitoring software flagged a document titled 'Funeral,' prompting administrators to alert her parents. Her mother subsequently discovered her writing a farewell letter before her father intervened.

'Schools should turn search off and keep it off until Google removes AI mode from search or ensures that every single student is always safe when they're interacting with AI,' family attorney Andrew Liddell told AFP on Thursday, November 5. Google stated that its AI Mode includes strict safeguards against self-harm and actively works to prevent attempts to bypass those safety mechanisms.

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said the company is reviewing the claims in the lawsuit and treats the matter with extreme seriousness. The case arrives amid broader legal scrutiny of major technology companies over youth safety, including wrongful death lawsuits against OpenAI and previous settlements involving Google and Character.AI.