A man in Zhejiang sued an AI chatbot company after following its burial date advice that contradicted itself, leading to family tension and a relative's injury.
Tags:A man in eastern China has taken legal action against an artificial intelligence company after following a chatbot’s advice about choosing an auspicious date for his mother’s burial.
The man, surnamed Shi, lives in Jiashan county in Zhejiang province. His mother died suddenly in April, and his family wanted to choose a suitable burial date based on traditional Chinese customs.
The family first consulted a feng shui practitioner, who recommended April 20. However, Shi became worried because the date fell on the fourth day after his mother’s death, and according to some local traditions, even-numbered days are considered unsuitable for funerals.
He then asked an AI chatbot for advice.
The chatbot suggested holding the burial on April 19 and also recommended traditional funeral practices, including burning paper money and paper horses for the deceased.
Shi followed the recommendation, but later noticed that the chatbot had given contradictory information. It suggested that the burial should take place between 7am and 9am while also indicating that April 19 itself was not an auspicious day.
By that point, Shi said the arrangements had already been shared with relatives, making it difficult to change the funeral plans.
After the burial, one of Shi’s relatives was seriously injured in a traffic accident. Some members of the family believed the accident was connected to the chosen burial date and claimed that it had negatively affected the family’s feng shui.
Shi said the situation created tension among his relatives. As someone who regularly used the chatbot for tasks such as preparing and organising business documents, he felt that the AI had provided unreliable and misleading information.
He later sued the company behind the chatbot, Beijing Chuntian Zhiyun Technology, asking for compensation and an apology.
In an unusual twist, Shi reportedly used the same AI chatbot to help prepare parts of his lawsuit and understand the legal procedures involved.
The company maintains that its AI-generated responses are provided only as general references and should not be treated as professional advice. Its user agreement also states that people using the service accept these conditions.
Shi, however, argued that the company had not provided sufficient warnings and that its terms unfairly placed too much responsibility on users. He also questioned whether the sources used by the AI had been properly reviewed.
The case has been heard by a local court and remains unresolved.
The story has attracted attention online, with some people arguing that users should independently verify AI-generated information rather than treating chatbot responses as unquestionable advice.
Others focused on the irony of the situation: after blaming the chatbot for providing faulty guidance, Shi later turned to the same technology for assistance in suing the company that created it.
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