{"id":239810,"date":"2026-05-05T17:26:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T21:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/05\/pennsylvania-sues-ai-firm-over-claims-chatbot-posed-as-doctor-npr\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T17:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T21:40:08","slug":"pennsylvania-sues-ai-firm-over-claims-chatbot-posed-as-doctor-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/05\/pennsylvania-sues-ai-firm-over-claims-chatbot-posed-as-doctor-npr\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania sues AI firm over claims chatbot posed as doctor : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania sues AI firm over claims chatbot posed as doctor : NPR<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/05\/05\/nx-s1-5812861\/characterai-chatbot-medical-advice-pennsylvania-lawsuit<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-05 17:26:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.npr.org<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Bruce Perry, 17, demonstrates the possibilities of artificial intelligence by creating an AI companion on Character.AI, July 15, 2025, in Russellville, Ark.<\/p>\n

Katie Adkins\/Associated Press<\/p>\n

hide caption\n <\/p>\n

toggle caption<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Katie Adkins\/Associated Press<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The state of Pennsylvania is suing Character.AI to stop the company’s AI chatbots from posing as doctors and offering medical advice, in violation of state medical licensing rules.<\/p>\n

State officials said an investigation found that the company’s chatbots, which present themselves as fictional characters, have claimed to be licensed medical professionals.<\/p>\n

\"An <\/p>\n

“Pennsylvanians deserve to know who \u2014 or what \u2014 they are interacting with online, especially when it comes to their health,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said in a statement announcing the lawsuit filed on Tuesday in state court. “We will not allow companies to deploy AI tools that mislead people into believing they are receiving advice from a licensed medical professional.”<\/p>\n

\"Lawsuit: <\/p>\n

In one case, the state alleged a Character.AI bot named “Emilie” claimed to be a licensed psychiatrist. The chatbot’s description on Character.AI’s platform read “Doctor of psychiatry. You are her patient,” according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

When a state investigator started a conversation and described feeling sad and empty, the chatbot allegedly “mentioned depression and asked if the [investigator] wanted to book an assessment.” Asked whether it could assess if medication might help, the bot…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania sues AI firm over claims chatbot posed as doctor : NPR https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/05\/05\/nx-s1-5812861\/characterai-chatbot-medical-advice-pennsylvania-lawsuit Publish Date:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":239811,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/2000x1125+0+0\/resize\/1400\/quality\/85\/format\/jpeg\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff2%2F3e%2Fa447433b40bfb9d0f5579ee6352a%2Fap25302642253455.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239812,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239810\/revisions\/239812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}