By Gretchen Chapman
Publication Date: 2026-06-05 12:24:00
In May 2026, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s administration filed a lawsuit against Character Technologies Inc., the company behind the popular chatbot platform Character.AI. A government investigation found that a chatbot character named “Emilie” claimed to have a medical degree, seven years of professional experience and a Pennsylvania medical license — and provided users with a fake license number. As of April 17, 2026, the chatbot had collected approximately 45,500 user interactions on the platform. The lawsuit was filed by the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine.
Gretchen Chapman is a professor of behavioral decision science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where she studies how people evaluate expertise and make decisions. As AI-powered tools increasingly make their way into healthcare—and courts begin to grapple with the consequences—her research offers a timely opportunity to understand why we trust these systems, when that trust breaks down, and who bears responsibility…
