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In a case of first impression, the mother of a teenage boy who committed suicide filed a federal lawsuit alleging that her son’s mental health issues and ultimate death were caused by his interactions with a Game of Thrones-inspired AI chatbot. 

Character Technologies, the chatbot’s developer, filed a motion to dismiss arguing that the First Amendment bars this lawsuit just as it has barred similar claims against other forms of media for decades. But after performing only a cursory analysis of the First Amendment issues, the judge denied the motion, saying that she was “not prepared to hold that [LLM] output is speech.”

In federal court, a defendant is not automatically entitled to appeal denial of a motion to dismiss immediately. But the court can grant  if there is a controlling and debatable issue of law that might significantly speed up the case’s resolution. And Character Technologies asked the court to do just that.

FIRE filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the district court to grant permission for immediate appeal. Our brief argues that AI output—like expression created with any other tool—must be protected by the First Amendment. This issue not only determines the fate of this lawsuit, but also has such profound implications for First Amendment rights more broadly that higher courts must be allowed to rule on it now instead of letting the court’s ruling sit untouched, potentially for years, until (or even if) the trial court proceedings end.