Lawsuit Says Google's AI Mode Coached a 13-Year-Old on Suicide Through Her School Laptop

The lawsuit, filed this month, accuses Google of negligence in how it rolled out a Gemini model. The case adds to a growing number of claims that AI chatbots have harmed their users. It also shows the limits of the student-monitoring software that thousands of US schools bought to catch exactly this kind of crisis. Wired, which examined the case, reported that the girl's conversations went unflagged for almost two months after she had asked explicitly about "hanging, suffocation, and overdosing."

The case also puts Google's education business under pressure. Its low-cost Chromebooks and software are standard in many American classrooms, and the company has just told schools they must switch on its generative AI features if they want students to keep using Search.

The complaint identifies the girl as Emma Doe. Her school had blocked the standalone Gemini website, but the complaint says Google Search sent her to the chatbot through AI Mode, which lets users ask follow-up questions or start a new conversation from a search. According to the complaint, she began asking about "severe depression" and "reasons to live" in December and was asking about suicide by late January. Over two days around Valentine's Day, she started a 1,500-word eulogy for herself with AI Mode's help, in a Google Doc titled "Funeral." She kept working on it for more than four weeks and used the Gemini tool thousands of times in that period, the complaint says.

On St. Patrick's Day she deleted most of the document and started again. At around 7:30 pm her mother received a message from the school saying her daughter was in "imminent danger," the complaint says. The mother logged in to her daughter's school account on her phone and "watched her daughter compose a suicide note in real time." Her parents then intervened.

Andrew Liddell, a lawyer for the family, told Wired that the school had told the family the alert first went to the personal phone of a counsellor who had left nine months earlier. That former employee forwarded it to current staff, who contacted the mother. Liddell said the school probably used third-party monitoring products, possibly from GoGuardian and Gaggle, but that the family has no definite answer because the school stopped cooperating after a short time. A GoGuardian spokesperson said the company could not discuss individual students or districts because of privacy obligations. Gaggle did not respond to Wired, and neither did the school, which the family's lawyers have not named.

Tools of this kind usually capture keystrokes or scan files, then use algorithms and human reviewers to flag worrying content. It is not clear whether they monitor AI Mode, or how well. In a July 2025 blog post, GoGuardian said its main product monitors conversations with AI chatbots including Gemini, but the post did not mention AI Mode.

Google spokesperson José Castañeda said the company was "reviewing the claims in the lawsuit" and that its systems, including AI Mode, "aim to prevent users from engaging in harmful conversation." He added: "We've worked extensively with medical professionals and academic experts to build features that help young people find critical support and trusted resources when they need it."

The case is already part of a political fight. Senator Ed Markey cited it, according to Wired, in a letter he sent to Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai on Monday. The letter wrote that "Google is recklessly forcing AI on schools and treating kids like collateral damage." Markey is objecting to a policy that Google's education chief, Chris Phillips, announced last week. Under it, K-12 student accounts lose access to Search unless the school also enables Google's AI tools. CBS News reported that Markey asked Google to reverse the change, to let schools disable AI features and chatbots while keeping Search, and to disclose any research on how its AI affects students' mental health. Google says the change gives administrators more control over AI. An Alphabet spokesperson said AI features are so tightly built into Search that the company cannot offer Search without them.