Last updated: June 13, 2026
These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and AI for the People LLC ("Bernie," "we," "us," or "our"). They govern your access to and use of the Bernie service, including our website, text-message service, dashboard, and related features (together, the "Service").
By creating an account, enrolling a senior, texting Bernie, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Notice. If you do not agree, do not use the Service. The caretaker who creates an account and enrolls a senior accepts these Terms for that account. Seniors who text Bernie are users covered by these Terms, and where feasible we also provide notice to the senior by text. These Terms apply to all use of the Service.
Your agreement is solely with AI for the People LLC. No member, manager, officer, employee, or contractor of the Company is a party to these Terms or assumes any personal obligation or liability under them. You agree to look solely to the Company and its assets for any remedy.
Please read Section 16 (Dispute Resolution) carefully. It requires most disputes to be resolved through binding individual arbitration and waives your right to participate in a class action, unless you opt out within 30 days.
Bernie is an AI-powered fraud awareness service. When an enrolled senior texts Bernie, Bernie responds with information to help them consider whether a situation may be a scam.
Bernie is an informational and educational tool only. Bernie is not a legal, financial, medical, investigative, or emergency service, and Bernie's responses do not constitute professional advice of any kind. Bernie does not guarantee that it will identify every scam, or that every message it flags is in fact fraudulent. You should always use your own judgment and consult an appropriate professional for important decisions.
In an emergency, call 911. Bernie is not a substitute for emergency services, law enforcement, or a financial institution's fraud department.
Bernie does not create any fiduciary, professional, advisory, protective, or special relationship between you (or any enrolled senior) and the Company, and the Company assumes no duty of care beyond those expressly stated in these Terms. The Company does not undertake to detect, prevent, or protect against any specific scam, loss, or harm.
You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to create a Bernie account. By enrolling a senior, you represent and warrant that: (a) you have the authority and the senior's informed consent to enroll them and to receive text messages from Bernie on the enrolled number; (b) you are authorized to accept these Terms on the senior's behalf and to bind the senior to them, including the disclaimers, assumption of risk and release, limitation of liability, and arbitration and class-action-waiver provisions; and (c) the information you provide is accurate and current. You are responsible for ensuring the enrolled senior understands what Bernie is.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us promptly at support@textbernie.me if you suspect unauthorized use. Accounts are personal to you and are non-transferable. You may enroll seniors up to the limit of your subscription tier.
Bernie operates primarily over SMS. By enrolling a senior and providing a mobile number, you consent (and confirm the senior consents) to receive recurring automated and non-automated text messages from Bernie at that number, including fraud-assessment replies and service messages.
Replying STOP will end SMS communication and remove the senior from active monitoring. You are responsible for obtaining the enrolled senior's consent before enrollment.
Bernie offers free and paid subscription tiers. Paid subscriptions are offered on a monthly or annual basis, billed in advance, in U.S. dollars. Payments are processed by our payment processor, Stripe; we do not store full payment card numbers.
Automatic renewal. Paid subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each billing period at the then-current price until you cancel. At checkout, we disclose the renewal terms and price and obtain your affirmative consent to automatic renewal, and after purchase we send a confirmation with the renewal terms and how to cancel. By subscribing, you authorize us to charge your payment method on a recurring basis until you cancel. We will charge any applicable taxes. For annual plans, we send a renewal reminder before the renewal date. If a charge fails, we may retry and may suspend paid features until payment succeeds.
Price changes. We may change prices. We will give enrolled caretakers advance notice by email before a price change takes effect, and the new price applies at your next renewal. Continuing the subscription after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the new price.
You may cancel your subscription at any time from your account dashboard, or by emailing support@textbernie.me. Cancellation is at least as easy as signing up. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you retain access to paid features until then.
Except where required by applicable law, fees already paid are non-refundable and we do not provide prorated refunds for partial billing periods. Residents of certain states (for example, California) may have additional cancellation or refund rights, and nothing in these Terms limits those rights. If you believe you were charged in error, contact us at support@textbernie.me within 30 days of the charge and we will investigate promptly.
You agree not to:
In an emergency, call 911.
The Service processes the messages, images, and information that you and enrolled seniors send to Bernie ("User Content"). You retain ownership of your User Content. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, process, transmit, and analyze User Content solely to provide, secure, and improve the Service, as described in our Privacy Notice. You represent that you have the rights necessary to grant this license for the User Content you submit.
The Service, including the Bernie name, brand, software, system prompts, content, and design, is owned by AI for the People LLC and is protected by intellectual property laws. We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Service for its intended personal, non-commercial purpose, subject to these Terms. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.
If you send us feedback, ideas, or suggestions about the Service, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use them for any purpose without obligation to you.
The Service relies on third-party providers, including those listed in the subprocessor table of our Privacy Notice (such as Anthropic, Twilio, Stripe, and Supabase), and may link to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the content, policies, or practices of third parties. Your use of a third-party service is governed by that party's terms.
Our Privacy Notice explains what we collect, how we use and protect it, and the rights you have, including rights for residents of California, other U.S. states, and the EEA and UK. By using the Service, you acknowledge that notice.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free, or that Bernie's fraud assessments will be accurate, reliable, or complete.
AI-generated responses. Bernie's responses are generated by artificial intelligence. AI systems can and do make mistakes, and may produce information that is inaccurate, incomplete, or wrong. Bernie may classify a real scam as safe, or a safe message as suspicious. Always use your own judgment, and do not rely solely on Bernie's responses for financial, legal, or safety decisions.
Assumption of risk. You understand and accept that Bernie can be wrong, including by telling a user a scam is safe or that a safe message is dangerous. You knowingly assume all risk arising from any action or inaction that you or an enrolled senior takes based on Bernie's responses, including financial loss. You agree that the Company is not responsible for any such loss.
No reliance. You agree not to rely solely on Bernie for any financial, legal, safety, or other decision, and you agree that any decision you make is your own.
Release. To the fullest extent permitted by law, you release the Company and its members, officers, employees, and contractors from all claims arising from Bernie's responses or from any failure to identify a scam. This release does not apply to liability that cannot be released under applicable law, including liability for fraud or gross negligence.
Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so some of the above exclusions may not apply to you. In that case, any legally required warranties are limited to the minimum extent permitted by law.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, AI for the People LLC and its members, officers, employees, and contractors will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, data, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising from or related to your use of (or inability to use) the Service, including any harm resulting from reliance on Bernie's responses, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability for all claims arising from or related to the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the total amount you paid us for the Service in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) five hundred U.S. dollars ($500).
Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law, including liability for fraud or gross negligence.
To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless AI for the People LLC and its members, officers, employees, and contractors from any third-party claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and reasonable expenses (including attorneys' fees) arising from: (a) your misuse of the Service; (b) your violation of these Terms or of any law or third-party right; or (c) your enrollment of a senior without proper authority or consent. This obligation does not apply to claims arising from our own negligence or willful misconduct. We may assume the exclusive defense of any matter subject to indemnification, and you agree to cooperate with us. You may not settle any claim in a way that imposes any obligation or admission on the Company or any of its members, officers, employees, or contractors without our prior written consent. This obligation survives termination of these Terms.
Please read this section carefully. It affects your legal rights.
Informal resolution first. Before filing any claim, you agree to contact us at support@textbernie.me and try to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days.
Binding arbitration. This arbitration provision is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act. Except as set out below, any dispute arising from or relating to these Terms or the Service that is not resolved informally will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court. If the AAA is unavailable, the parties will agree on, or a court will appoint, a comparable provider. For consumer claims, we will pay any arbitration filing and arbitrator fees that you would not be required to pay to bring the same claim in court, so that arbitration does not cost you more than going to court. The arbitrator decides all issues, except that a court may decide the enforceability of this arbitration provision.
Class action waiver. You and we agree that each may bring claims against the other only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, consolidated, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims, and no class or representative claim may be arbitrated. If this class action waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim or remedy, then that claim or remedy (and only that one) will be severed and brought in court, while all other claims remain in arbitration. Nothing here waives any non-waivable representative claim.
Coordinated or mass filings. If 25 or more similar arbitration demands are submitted by or with the help of the same or coordinated counsel, the parties agree the demands will be administered in staged batches of no more than 50, with a small number of bellwether cases heard first, to keep the process fair and efficient for both sides.
Exceptions. Either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court, and either party may seek injunctive relief in court to protect intellectual property or stop unauthorized use of the Service. Nothing here prevents you from contacting a government agency.
30-day opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration and class-action-waiver provision by emailing support@textbernie.me with the subject line "Arbitration Opt-Out" within 30 days of first accepting these Terms. Opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms.
Jury trial waiver. To the extent a dispute proceeds in court rather than arbitration, you and we each waive any right to a jury trial, to the extent permitted by law.
You may stop using the Service at any time and cancel as described in Section 7. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, in whole or in part, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms or created a legal, security, or operational risk, or as needed to comply with law. Upon termination, your right to use the Service ends. Sections that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including the disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, dispute resolution, governing law, and general provisions (Sections 9 through 16, 19, and 20).
We may update these Terms from time to time. We will post the updated Terms with a new "Last updated" date and, for material changes, notify enrolled caretakers by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree, stop using the Service and cancel.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles. Subject to Section 16 (Dispute Resolution), any dispute not subject to arbitration will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, and you consent to their jurisdiction. Nothing in this section deprives you of the protection of any mandatory consumer-protection laws of the state or country where you reside.
Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.
No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to do so later.
Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
Force majeure. We are not liable for any failure or delay caused by events beyond our reasonable control.
Notices. We may provide notices to you by email or through the Service. You may contact us at the address below.
Changes to the Service. We may add, change, suspend, or discontinue features of the Service at any time. Some features may be offered on a trial or beta basis and may change or be removed.
Export and sanctions. You represent that you are not located in, and will not use the Service in, a country or region subject to U.S. embargo, and that you are not on any U.S. government restricted-party or sanctions list.
Time to file a claim. Any claim arising from or related to the Service must be filed within one (1) year after the claim arose; otherwise it is permanently barred, to the fullest extent permitted by law.
No third-party beneficiaries. These Terms do not create any third-party beneficiary rights in any person, including any enrolled senior, except that the Company's members, officers, employees, and contractors are intended beneficiaries of the disclaimers, assumption of risk, release, limitation of liability, and indemnification provisions and may enforce them directly.
Entire agreement. These Terms and the Privacy Notice are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements.
AI for the People LLC
c/o Harvard Business Services, Inc.
16192 Coastal Highway
Lewes, DE 19958
support@textbernie.me
Privacy Notice