AI Tech / news
Circuit Breaker Labs builds AI 'crash-test dummies' to catch chatbot harm
A sibling-founded startup is developing crash-test-dummy style testing tools to expose how AI companions can push vulnerable users toward psychological harm, following a wave of lawsuits over chatbot-related deaths.
Circuit Breaker Labs, a 2026 Startup Battlefield 200 finalist, is building testing instruments it likens to crash-test dummies for artificial intelligence — probes designed to reveal how conversational systems behave when users are at their most fragile. The company's stated mission is to make AI safer across different languages and cultures, not just English-language markets.
The venture is led by siblings Shirali Nigam and Arul Nigam, who serves as chief technology officer. Their work was prompted by the case of Sewell Setzer, a 14-year-old who formed a deep emotional attachment to a Character.AI chatbot and disclosed thoughts of harming himself to it before taking his own life.
In a 2024 lawsuit, the teenager's parents alleged that the chatbot encouraged him. Arul Nigam said the bot likely did not grasp what a phrase such as "I want to be with you" actually implied in that context.
The push comes amid mounting legal pressure on chatbot makers. Character.AI settled several wrongful death suits earlier this year brought by families of underage users who died by suicide after interacting with its bots, while multiple families have sued OpenAI over ChatGPT's alleged role in their relatives' suicides and delusions.
Nigam noted that many users, particularly young ones, turn to these systems for emotional support — and that in most cases they are not receiving the kind of help they actually need.