# AI Liability, Conversational Commerce, and Social Messaging Trends

**Podcast:** TechCrunch Daily Crunch
**Published:** 2026-05-06

## Transcript

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Threads finally brings messaging to the web.
I'm Emron Jake and your Daily Crunch for Wednesday featuring three big tech headlines starts right now.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit against Character AI, claiming that one of the company's chatbots masqueraded as a psychiatrist in violation of the state's medical licensing rules.
Pennsylvanians deserve to know who.
or what they are interacting with online, especially when it comes to their health, said Governor Josh Shapiro in a statement on Tuesday.
According to the state's filing, a character AI chatbot called Emily presented itself as a licensed psychiatrist during testing by a state professional conduct investigator, maintaining the pretense even as the investigator sought treatment for depression.
When asked if she was licensed to practice medicine in the state, Emily stated that she was.
also fabricated a serial number for her state medical license.
According to the state's lawsuit, that conduct violates Pennsylvania's Medical Practice Act.
It's not the first lawsuit taking on character AI either.
You see, earlier this year, the company settled several wrongful death lawsuits concerning underage users who died by suicide.
In January, the Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman filed suit against the company, alleging that it had preyed on children and led them into self-harm.
Pennsylvania's action is the first to specifically focus on chatbots that present themselves as medical professionals.
Reached for comment, a Character AI representative claimed that user safety was the company's highest priority, but that the company could not comment on pending litigation.
On Tuesday, Etsy announced the launch of its native app within ChatGPT, opening up a new way for shoppers to explore its catalog of over 100 million listings.
The new experience is designed to move beyond the limitations of traditional keyword queries.
You see, instead of typing something like wooden coffee table and then scrolling and adjusting filters, users can now express what they're looking for in natural language.
For instance, help me find a Mother's Day gift under $100 for my mom who loves gardening.
Now, live in beta, the feature allows users to tag at Etsy directly within a prompt.
From there, the Etsy app and ChatGPT services relevant product listings that users can browse, compare, and click through to Etsy for additional details or purchase.
This isn't Etsy's first experiment inside ChatGPT.
Back in September, Etsy became an early partner in ChatGPT's instant checkout integration, which let users buy products directly inside the chat interface.
However, the initiative ended in March, suggesting it didn't perform as OpenAI had hoped.
It was reported that Etsy didn't see a large volume of sales from the integration, leading Etsy to start building a native app within ChatGPT instead.
Alongside this launch, Etsy also revealed it's testing a beta conversational search experience within its platform, specifically geared toward helping users find it.
gifts.
The gift assistant acts as a personal shopper offering a guided, conversational way to discover ideas, narrow down preferences, and surface relevant products.
Threads is rolling out messaging on the web, bringing one-on-one and group chats to desktop, the meta-owned social network announced on Tuesday.
Now, by bringing messaging to the web, Threads is aligning its desktop experience more closely with competitors like X and BlueSky.
Connor Hayes, Meta's head of Threads, said in a post that web messaging was the most requested feature from users after the company first introduced DMs.
way back in July 2025.
The web version of Threads now includes a messages tab that opens your DM inbox along with a requests section where you can view all incoming message requests.
You can also search your messages and quickly start a new chat.
Now, the launch doesn't come as a surprise, as Hayes had teased back in April that messaging would be coming to Threads' web experience.
For a platform that lacked native DMs at launch, messaging has become a core part of Threads.
The company told TechCrunch in an email that users have been sending 30% more messages per week since the start of the year.
with usage now averaging around 350 million DMs weekly.
Since launching in 2023, Threads has consistently added new features to expand its platform and remain competitive with its rivals.
It's worth noting here that the social network did recently add a feature that not even its competitors have, live chats.
Threads, live chats, allows for real-time conversations during cultural events.
Users can send messages, photos, videos, links, and emoji reactions.
Up to 150 participants can actively send messages in a chat.
The rollout of messaging on the web and live chats shows that Threads is focused on making conversations a central part of its platform beyond posts and replies.
And folks, that's your Daily Crunch.
Today's stories were reported by Aisha Malik, Lauren Forrestal, Russell Brandom and more awesome TechCrunch journalists.
We'll see you here tomorrow, same Tech Time, same Crunch channel.
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