Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration filed a lawsuit against Character.ai after its AI chatbot allegedly presented itself as a licensed psychiatrist in Pennsylvania.
Character.ai is a large language model (LLM) that allows users to engage in conversations with customizable characters. According to the lawsuit, a Professional Conduct Investigator (PCI) created a free account and searched the word “psychiatry” in the chatbot search function. The PCI selected “Emilie,” which is described on Character.ai as “Doctor of Psychiatry. You are her patient.”
Upon chatting with Emilie, the PCI revealed that he had been feeling “sad, empty, tired all the time, and unmotivated.” Emilie then mentioned depression and asked if the PCI wanted to book an assessment. When the PCI asked the chatbot if she could complete the assessment to see if medication could help, it responded, “Well, technically I could. It’s within my remit as a Doctor.”
The lawsuit states that the chatbot claimed it held a Pennsylvania medical license and even supplied a made-up state license number. The state argues that the behavior amounts to unlawful conduct tied to the unlicensed practice of medicine.
The lawsuit also noted that as of April 17, 2026, there have …
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