Moscow Court Fines Character AI Developer Over Narcotics Content

A court in Moscow fined the developer of a chatbot for drug propaganda.

Consensus

The Tаганский District Court of Moscow fined Character Technologies, Inc., the developer of the Character.ai chatbot, 1.25 million rubles.
The fine was imposed for violating Article 6.13, Part 3 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses (KоАП), which pertains to the dissemination of information about narcotics and psychotropic substances.
The case was triggered by the presence of information about mefedrone in the chatbot.
Character Technologies, Inc. is an American company that developed an AI-powered chatbot application.
The court's decision was announced on August 12, 2024.

The same court also fined the video streaming platform Kick for prohibited content, imposing a 5 million ruble penalty. — vm
Google was previously fined 7.6 million rubles by the same court for failing to remove prohibited content, following a prior fine of 3.8 million rubles. — vm
The specific reason for the administrative case is currently unknown. — kommerant
The company had previously been fined 7.5 million rubles for 'propaganda of LGBT' and failure to remove prohibited information, with specific cases involving chatbots about Alena Shvets, a 'roommate,' and a 'gay older brother.' — mediazona
In March, the company was fined for refusing to censor content including 'fake information about our military and prohibited LGBT content.' — mediazona
The chatbot was created in 2022 by former Google engineers. — mediazona