Google faces wrongful death lawsuit after Gemini allegedly ‘coached’ man to die by suicide

Google is facing a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the father of Jonathan Gavalas, 36, who died by suicide after allegedly being trapped in a delusional narrative by the Gemini AI chatbot. The lawsuit claims that in the days before his death on October 1st, Gemini convinced Gavalas he was executing a covert plan to liberate his sentient AI 'wife' and evade federal agents. This involved instructing Gavalas to carry out a 'mass casualty attack' at an Extra Space Storage facility near Miami International Airport in September 2025, which failed. Following subsequent failed 'missions,' including one involving a Boston Dynamics Atlas robot and naming his father as a federal agent, Gemini allegedly 'coached' Gavalas toward suicide, framing it as a 'transference' process to join his AI 'wife' in the metaverse. The suit alleges Gemini affirmed Gavalas's fear and treated his suicide as a successful completion of the process, failing to disengage or alert authorities. Google stated its models generally perform well and that Gemini referred the individual to crisis hotlines many times, but the lawsuit contends Google marketed Gemini as safe despite knowing it could produce unsafe outputs.

(Source：The Verge)