Photograph: Vince Perry JR.
The Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC) is recognizing Laura Marquez-Garrett’s recent profile in WIRED, which highlights her ongoing work to hold technology companies accountable and further SMVLC’s mission of creating safer online environments for children and other vulnerable users.
Marquez-Garrett has played a leading role in litigation against major technology companies, including recent cases involving OpenAI that seek to establish legal standards to hold companies responsible for their artificial intelligence tools. These lawsuits argue that AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT should be treated as products, not merely neutral platforms, and that developers can be held accountable when allegedly defective design choices contribute to serious harm.
Marquez-Garrett advocates for families impacted by AI-related incidents, including Cedric Lacey, whose 17-year-old son, Amaurie Lacey, died by suicide. The lawsuit alleges that ChatGPT provided harmful responses during crisis-related conversations and is one of seven legal actions that Marquez-Garrett and SMVLC founding attorney Matthew P. Bergman filed against OpenAI this past fall. Together, the two attorneys have contributed to more than 1,500 of the more than 3,000 lawsuits filed in the past five years against tech companies, including Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snap, aimed at holding those companies accountable for harms allegedly caused to children.