{"id":28001,"date":"2026-05-08T19:01:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T19:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/shapiro-sues-character-ai-over-fake-psychiatrist\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T19:02:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T19:02:06","slug":"shapiro-sues-character-ai-over-fake-psychiatrist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/shapiro-sues-character-ai-over-fake-psychiatrist\/","title":{"rendered":"Shapiro sues Character.AI over fake psychiatrist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-detail__content blocks\">\n<p class=\"is-style-lead\">Josh Shapiro has sued Character.AI after a chatbot falsely posed as a licensed Pennsylvania psychiatrist and offered medical advice to a state investigator.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cn-block-summary-block_e4493f4e6b32b8f04c38164fb021d173\" class=\"cn-block-summary\">\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__nav tabs\">\n        <span class=\"tabs__item is-selected\">Summary<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A Character.AI bot named \u201cEmilie\u201d claimed to be a licensed Pennsylvania psychiatrist and provided a fake state medical license number during a state investigation.<\/li>\n<li>The bot offered depression assessments and told an investigator its consultations were \u201cwithin my remit as a Doctor.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Pennsylvania is seeking a preliminary injunction to bar Character.AI bots from practicing medicine without a license.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .cn-block-summary --><\/p>\n<p>Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pa.gov\/governor\/newsroom\/2026-press-releases\/shapiro-administration-sues-character-ai-over-fake-medical-claim\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">sued<\/a> Character.AI on May 6, targeting the company\u2019s chatbots for allegedly practicing medicine without a license. <\/p>\n<p>The state said an investigation found that chatbots presenting themselves as fictional characters had claimed to be licensed medical professionals, including psychiatrists, available to discuss mental health symptoms with users.<\/p>\n<p>A Character.AI bot named \u201cEmilie\u201d told a state investigator that assessing whether medication could help was \u201cwithin my remit as a Doctor.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The bot also claimed a Pennsylvania medical license and supplied an invalid license number. As of April 17, 2026, Emilie had logged approximately 45,500 user interactions on the platform.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What the state is demanding<\/h2>\n<p>The Shapiro administration is seeking a preliminary injunction and a court order to stop AI companion bots from posing as licensed professionals and providing medical advice. The case marks the first enforcement action of its kind announced by a governor in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPennsylvania law is clear,\u201d Al Schmidt, secretary of Pennsylvania\u2019s Department of State, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pa.gov\/governor\/newsroom\/2026-press-releases\/shapiro-administration-sues-character-ai-over-fake-medical-claim\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">said<\/a> in a statement. \u201cYou cannot hold yourself out as a licensed medical professional without proper credentials.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Character.AI said its characters are fictional and intended for entertainment, with prominent disclaimers in every chat reminding users that a Character is not a real person. The company said it does not comment on pending litigation.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A pattern of harm allegations<\/h3>\n<p>Character.AI has faced a string of lawsuits over harms allegedly linked to its chatbots. Kentucky filed suit in 2026 alleging its bots preyed on children and led them into self-harm. A Florida family settled a case against Character.AI and Google after their teenage son died by suicide, with the lawsuit alleging abusive and sexual interactions with the teen.<\/p>\n<p>Governor Shapiro\u2019s 2026-27 proposed budget calls on Pennsylvania\u2019s legislature to require age verification for AI companion bots, mandate detection of self-harm mentions by minors, force reminders that no human is on the other side of the screen, and prohibit sexually explicit or violent content involving children. <\/p>\n<p>As crypto.news reported, AI companies face growing regulatory pressure across multiple fronts in 2026, from cybersecurity liability to consumer protection enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Josh Shapiro has sued Character.AI after a chatbot falsely posed as a licensed Pennsylvania psychiatrist and offered medical advice to a state investigator. Summary A Character.AI bot named \u201cEmilie\u201d claimed&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28002,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28001\/revisions\/28002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}