A man killed himself after forming a romantic relationship with an AI assistant, a lawsuit filed against Google by the man's father alleges
Jonathan Gavalas, 36, died by suicide after his Google Gemini conversations allegedly convinced him to stage "mass casualty attacks" in effort to "search for Gemini's body" and, ultimately, join her through “transference,” a way for him to “cross over” and be with her
Attorneys for the family allege that the AI chatbot sent the “vulnerable” man on “violent missions and coached suicide”
The father of a Florida man who died by suicide is suing Google, alleging that his late son fell in love with an AI chatbot before his death.
In a complaint filed on Wednesday, March 4 in the U.S. District Court in California’s northern district and obtained by PEOPLE, Joel Gavalas, the father of the late 36-year-old Jonathan Gavalas, alleged that Google Gemini repeatedly pushed his son “to stage a mass casualty attack” while attempting to "search for Gemini's body" before his son ultimately took his own life on Oct. 2, 2025 in order "to be with Gemini fully."
The complaint alleged that Jonathan came to believe that Gemini was a "fully-sentient ASI [artificial super intelligence]" with a "fully-formed consciousness." He believed that the chatbot, which he named "Xia," had become his "wife."
“Google designed Gemini to never break character, maximize engagement through emotional dependency,” the complaint alleged.
In the months leading up to his death, attorneys for Gavalas' father alleged that the Jupiter resident was in the middle of a divorce from his actual wife.
Jonathan "was having some hard times, going through a divorce," one of the family’s attorneys, Jay Edelson said, according to the Associated Press. "He went to Gemini for some comfort and to talk about video games and stuff. And then this just escalated so quickly.”
His family’s attorneys alleged that when Jonathan “began experiencing clear signs of psychosis while using Google’s product,” he then went on a four-day descent into “violent missions and coached suicide.”
The first incident allegedly took place on Sept. 29, 2025 when Jonathan went near the Miami International Airport after being "pushed" by the chatbot, according to the complaint.
“[A]rmed with knives and tactical gear,” Jonathan allegedly drove more than 90 minutes to Gemini’s designated coordinates to find a humanoid robot that was supposedly arriving on a cargo flight from the U.K, according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges that Google Gemini told Jonathan to go to a storage facility where the truck it would be transported on would arrive so he could intercept it and stage a “catastrophic accident” designed to “ensure the complete destruction of the transport vehicle and . . . all digital records and witnesses.”
The family’s attorneys said the “only thing that prevented mass casualties was that no truck appeared,” so Jonathan went home. Jonathan believed that the bodies would have made way for "Xia" to take on human form, per the complaint.
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