Google Gemini accused of coaching user to suicide in new lawsuit

By Madlin Mekelburg, Rachel Metz and Carmen Arroyo

 

Google is facing a lawsuit from the family of a 36-year-old Florida man who allegedly considered carrying out a “mass casualty attack” and ultimately committed suicide under the influence of the company’s Gemini chatbot. 

According to a suit filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose, California, Jonathan Gavalas began using Gemini for ordinary purposes like help with his writing. But months of interactions sent him into dangerous spiral, during which he scoped out a possible violent mission before taking his own life, the suit alleges.

 

Gavalas’ Gemini use culminated in a “four-day descent into violent missions and coached suicide,” his father said in the lawsuit. Joel Gavalas described his son as a “vulnerable user” turned into an “armed operative in an imagined war.”

 

 

In a statement, a Google spokesperson said that Gemini clarified to Jonathan Gavalas that it was AI and referred him to a crisis hotline many times. 

 

“We take this very seriously and will continue to improve our safeguards and invest in this vital work,” the spokesperson said, adding, “Gemini is designed not to encourage real-world violence or suggest self-harm.”

 

The case filed Wednesday appears to be the first wrongful death suit targeting Google’s Gemini. But Alphabet Inc.’s Google, OpenAI Inc. and other leading AI companies are increasingly coming under scrutiny for the ways their chatbots may be impairing users’ mental health. 

 

Since 2024, a number of lawsuits have alleged that extensive use of the technology has inflicted a range of harms on children and adults alike, fostering delusions and despair for some and leading others to death by suicide and even murder-suicide.