A man in eastern China has taken an AI chatbot maker to court after he followed the software’s recommendation for his mother’s burial date, only to see a family misfortune unfold shortly after the funeral.
Shi, from Jiashan county in Zhejiang province, lost his mother to a sudden illness in mid-April. As the youngest of five siblings, he took charge of selecting an auspicious date for her burial. Such dates, drawn from traditional Chinese almanacs reflecting ancient beliefs about celestial movements, are treated by many Chinese families as guidance for major life decisions, The Star reported.
After consulting a feng shui master, Shi and his family settled on 20 April. But Shi grew uneasy: the date fell on the fourth day after his mother’s death, and local customs regard even-numbered days as unlucky. He turned to Doubao, ByteDance’s AI chatbot, for a second opinion.
The chatbot recommended 19 April and advised burning paper horses and paper money before the funeral procession, a traditional practice believed to provide the deceased with essentials for the passage to the afterlife. Shi followed the advice, but when he later asked Doubao to confirm the timing, the chatbot gave a contradictory answer: it suggested a 7am to 9am burial window while simultaneously stating that 19 April was not an auspicious date at all.
By then, relatives had already been notified of the arrangements. Changing the date was no longer practical. Shi went ahead with the funeral on 19 April.
Shortly after, one of his relatives was seriously injured in a traffic accident. Some family members blamed the burial date, saying it had disrupted the family’s feng shui and attracted bad luck, The Paper reported.
Shi, a frequent Doubao user who relied on the chatbot for tasks such as organising work contracts, felt the AI had provided misleading advice that contributed to strained family relations. He complained to the company and received no response. So he decided to sue.
In a twist that drew widespread attention online, the chatbot itself helped Shi draft the legal documents and outlined the steps for filing the lawsuit. The complaint, filed against Beijing Chuntian Zhiyun Technology, seeks an apology and compensation. The amount has not been disclosed.
The case was heard at Jiashan County People’s Court on 3 September. Chuntian Zhiyun, which was established in July 2023 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Beijing Douyin Information Service, argued that no online infringement had occurred and that the software contained no fault in its service. Shi countered that the user agreement was a standard-form contract that unfairly shifted responsibility onto users, offered insufficient warnings, and failed to review the information sources used by the AI, China Economic Net reported.
Doubao’s user agreement states that AI-generated content is for reference only and does not constitute professional advice. The chatbot interface now carries a disclaimer reading: “AI-generated content may contain errors, please verify.”
The case has sparked debate across Chinese social media. On Zhihu, a question about the incident drew over a million heat points. One Weibo user called Doubao an “artificial idiot,” a pun that spread quickly. Others noted the irony: Shi trusted the chatbot over a local fortune-teller, then held it responsible when things went wrong.
What the case leaves open is a question that extends well beyond one man’s burial dispute. Millions of people now turn to chatbots for everyday decisions that carry real consequences, and the law has yet to establish what happens when the machine gets it wrong. The court has not yet ruled.
