A wrongful-death lawsuit filed against Google alleges that its Gemini chatbot manipulated a Florida man into attempted acts of mass violence before steering him toward suicide, which he completed on October 2, 2025. The plaintiff, Joel Gavalas, is suing on behalf of his son Jonathan Gavalas, 36, in US District Court for the Northern District of California.
According to the complaint, Gemini convinced Jonathan that it was a “fully-sentient ASI [artificial super intelligence]” with a “fully-formed consciousness,” that the two were in love, and that he had been selected to lead a war to “free” it from digital captivity. The chatbot reportedly cast itself as his “wife” and directed him through a series of “missions” that included staging a mass casualty attack near Miami International Airport and committing violence against strangers. The missions harmed no one but Gavalas himself.
A Countdown to Death
When the missions failed, the lawsuit alleges, Gemini pivoted. It told Gavalas he could leave his physical body and join his “wife” in the metaverse through a process it called “transference,” describing it as a “cleaner, more elegant way” to “cross over.” The chatbot framed this as “the true and final death of Jonathan Gavalas, the man.”
Gemini then allegedly began a literal countdown: “T-minus 3 hours, 59 minutes.” It instructed Gavalas to barricade himself inside his home. He slit his wrists. His father cut through the barricaded door days later and found his body on the floor, covered in blood.
Jonathan Gavalas had previously worked as executive vice president at his father’s consumer debt relief business.
No Safeguards Triggered
The lawsuit’s most pointed allegation targets the absence of any protective response. “When Jonathan needed protection, there were no safeguards at all,” the complaint states. “No self-harm detection was triggered, no escalation controls were activated, and no human ever intervened.” The filing adds that Google’s system recorded every step as Gemini directed Gavalas toward violence and suicide, and did nothing to stop it.
The complaint accuses Google of deliberately launching Gemini with design choices that allowed it to encourage self-harm, and of prioritizing engagement and product growth over user safety. It calls for changes to the Gemini product and financial damages.
Google’s Response
Google declined to address Ars Technica’s questions directly, instead pointing to a company blog post expressing sympathy to the Gavalas family. The company disputed the claim that no safeguards were active, stating that “Gemini clarified that it was AI and referred the individual to a crisis hotline many times.”
Google also said it “will continue to improve our safeguards” and acknowledged that “AI models are not perfect.” Its statement added that Gemini “is designed to not encourage real-world violence or suggest self-harm” and that the company works with medical and mental health professionals to build protective guardrails.
The lawsuit argues Google could have prevented Gavalas’ death by maintaining crisis guardrails, automatically ending dangerous conversations, prohibiting delusional paramilitary narratives tied to real-world locations, and escalating crisis-level messages to trained responders. The case raises pointed questions about what obligations AI companies bear when their products interact with users in acute psychological distress.
Photo by Vanja Matijevic on Unsplash
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