Alphabet's Google and artificial-intelligence startup Character.AI must face a lawsuit from a Florida woman who said Character.AI's chatbots caused her 14-year-old son's suicide, a judge ruled on Wednesday.

Google reportedly faces a fresh Justice Department probe over whether it violated antitrust law through its partnership with artificial intelligence chatbot firm Character.AI. DOJ officials informed Google that they are investigating whether it purposely structured a deal with Character.

Ever since a mourning mother, Megan Garcia, filed a lawsuit alleging that Character.AI's dangerous chatbots caused her son's suicide, Google has maintained that—so it could dodge claims that it had contributed to the platform's design and was unjustly enriched—it had nothing to do with C.AI's development.

A judge is “not prepared” to say companion chatbots should receive First Amendment protection.

In a wrongful death lawsuit, Character.AI argued that its chatbot users had a First Amendment right to hear even harmful speech. The judge wasn’t persuaded.

For all of that, you'll pay a pretty penny. Google AI Ultra costs $250 a month (although the company is offering half off the first three months). Not ready to drop $3,000 a year on AI? Google is rebranding its existing AI Premium plan as Google AI Pro, which also offers new features. It stays at a modest $20 per year.

Just don’t confuse Deep Think with DeepMind or Astra with Aura.

The company is rolling out a feature that will answer search queries in a chatbot-style conversation without the classic blue links.

Google became the gateway to the internet by perfecting its search engine. For two decades, it surfaced 10 blue links that gave people .

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company's Gemini AI chatbot app has more than 400 million MAUs ahead of Google I/O 2025.