Artificial intimacy: A teenager’s last conversation

Megan Garcia’s son Sewell died by suicide when he was just 14 years old. In the months leading up to his death he had been in a relationship with a chatbot on a platform called Character.ai. Megan was convinced it had something to do with his death, and set out to hold the company to account. In the third episode in this season, Cristina Criddle speaks to Megan about her story, and to Karandeep Anand, chief executive of Character.ai. Why has this technology been released to children before we understand the effects? Can chatbots capable of creating emotional bonds with users ever be safe for children? Check out some of Cristina’s reporting on this subject on FT.com : Character.ai and Google agree to settle lawsuits over teen suicides AI start-up Character.ai bans teens from talking to chatbots US regulator launches inquiry into AI ‘companions’ used by teens Artificial Intimacy is presented by Cristina Criddle and produced by Persis Love and Edwin Lane. The executive producer is Flo Phillips. Sound design is by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts. If you have been affected by the issues raised in this episode, you can reach out to a mental health helpline, such as the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the US or Samaritans in the UK. Help for many other countries can also be found at Befrienders Worldwide . Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to Artificial intimacy: A teenager’s last conversation online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Artificial intimacy: A teenager’s last conversation is an episode from FT Tech Tonic by Saragosa Manuela.

This episode is 34:11 long.

This episode was published on Feb 25, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from FT Tech Tonic when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.