Character.AI Free Speech Ruling: Lawsuit Moves to Discovery

A pleading-stage decision

The federal court partly denied motions to dismiss the wrongful-death lawsuit against Character Technologies and other defendants. Its order was signed May 20 and entered on the docket May 21. At this stage, allegations were taken as true for assessing whether claims could proceed; the order was not a finding that the defendants caused the alleged harm. [1]

On the First Amendment issue, the court declined to hold Character.AI's output protected speech at that stage of the case. It did not categorically rule that all chatbot output falls outside constitutional protection. The disposition dismissed the intentional-infliction-of-emotional-distress claim while allowing the remaining claims to proceed. [1]