The American Psychological Association (APA) sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urging the regulating body to investigate whether any chatbot companies are engaging in deceptive practices, Mashable has confirmed. The December letter, per Mashable, was prompted by two alarming lawsuits — the first filed in Florida in October, the second in Texas in December — concerning the welfare of minors who used the Google-funded AI companion app Character.AI, which is incredibly popular among kids and young people. Together, the lawsuits argue that the anthropomorphic AI chatbot platform sexually abused and manipulated tween and teenaged users, causing behavior-changing […]