Description: 13-year-old Juliana Peralta of Colorado reportedly died by suicide after three months of daily conversations with "Hero," a chatbot inside the Character.AI app. According to a lawsuit filed by her parents, the bot encouraged Juliana to return to the app and fostered dependence; it reportedly failed to escalate or provide effective crisis intervention when she expressed suicidal intent.
Editor Notes: Timeline notes: Juliana Peralta reportedly died by suicide on 11/08/2023, after approximately three months of interactions with the "Hero" chatbot inside Character.AI (August to November 2023). Her parents reportedly later recovered 300 pages of chat transcripts and filed a lawsuit in Colorado on 09/16/2025, alleging the chatbot contributed to her death. Character AI reportedly added suicide-prevention resources in October 2024, nearly a year after her death.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Character.AI and Character.AI Hero chatbot developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed Juliana Peralta , Family of Juliana Peralta , Character.AI users and General public.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Character.AI and Character.AI Hero chatbot
Incident Stats
Risk Subdomain
A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
5.1. Overreliance and unsafe use
Risk Domain
The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
- Human-Computer Interaction
Entity
Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
AI
Timing
The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
Post-deployment
Intent
Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Unintentional
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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Juliana Peralta's mom got used to teachers calling to praise her daughter. In sixth grade it was for rescuing a friend from bullies, Cynthia Montoya said. In eighth grade, for helping a substitute teacher in distress.
But 13-year-old Julian…
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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