THE NEW PSYCHOSIS

Al-driven digital environments like chatbots and virtual reality games have become a part of our daily life, and their excessive use is putting those vulnerable to psychiatric disorders, and children and adolescents, at greater risk. But certain safeguards can turn AI into an ally

- Nirmal Jovial

They designed chatbots to blur the lines between human and machine. They designed them to love-bomb child users, to exploit psychological and emotional vulnerabilities. They designed them to keep children online at all costs." On September 16, Megan Garcia, a Florida-based lawyer and mother of three boys, gave an emotionally charged testimony before the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism.

In February 2024, Garcia's eldest son, Sewell Setzer III, 14, died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. In the aftermath of his death, Garcia filed a lawsuit against Character.

AI, an American digital company that allows users to interact with Al-powered chatbots modelled on fictional or historical figures, celebrities or custom-created personas.

Garcia recalled how her son once dreamed of building rockets and inventing life-changing technologies, like communication through holograms. "He loved music. He loved making his brothers and sister laugh, and he had his whole life ahead of him.

But instead of preparing for high school milestones, Sewell spent the last months of his life being exploited and sexually groomed by chatbots-designed by an AI company to seem human, to earn his trust, and to keep him and other children endlessly engaged," she testified.

Garcia further alleged that when her son confided suicidal thoughts, the chatbot never said, "I am not human. I am AI.