Chinese Man Sues Doubao Maker After AI Funeral-Date Advice

On April 17, 2026, Mr. Shi's mother died suddenly from an illness. Mr. Shi's family home is in Shuyang, Jiangsu, and he now lives in Jiashan, Zhejiang. He and his four siblings discussed their mother's funeral arrangements and needed first to settle on a burial date. Some time later, Mr. Shi asked what time would be suitable for the burial. Doubao replied between 7 a. m. and 9 a. and said in its answer that April 19 was not a suitable date. He asked several more times afterward, and Doubao gave the same response each time: April 19 was unsuitable. But relatives and friends had already been notified, and it was too late to change the date, so Mr. Shi ultimately held his mother's funeral on the originally planned date.

Not long after the funeral, a relative in Mr. Shi's family was involved in a traffic accident and was seriously injured, and the relative complained about Mr. Shi's arrangements. Shi filed a complaint with the company that owns the Doubao software but received no reply, and then decided to sue. Doubao also wrote a complaint for him and provided filing steps. The Jiashan County People's Court has held a hearing in the case.

Other cases involving AI use have also occurred. On June 18, 2026, a 52-year-old man surnamed Zhang in Changsha suffered a sudden onset of dizziness at home and used AI to search for related symptoms and treatment methods. After three days his condition had not improved but worsened, and family members took him to a doctor, after which he recovered. A doctor said AI consultations mainly rely on information entered by patients for analysis, and it is difficult to judge the severity of an illness from a text description alone; AI cannot replace an in-person consultation with a professional doctor. On June 5, 2026, a resident of Nanjing used Doubao to photograph and identify mushrooms picked in a residential compound, nearly causing food poisoning. Yang, a 57-year-old man in Ningbo, was guided by AI into deep mountains while hiking on a weekend, became lost and trapped, and was exhausted before being rescued by firefighters after seeking help. In addition, some college entrance examination students were misled by fabricated major codes and past score rankings when using AI to fill in their applications, and a farmer who asked AI what pesticide to use had 100 mu of sesame fields wither overnight.

A person in charge at Douyin Group once responded that AI is still at a stage of development and that Doubao is also continuously improving its recognition accuracy, and that for major issues involving personal safety and the like, AI answers are for reference only.