Disclaimer: All content in this entry should be considered to be the opinion of an individual and not necessarily an accurate or complete depiction of the facts. Like anything on the internet, take everything with a grain of salt.
Character.AI and its Issues and Controversies
(As of January 31, 2023)
What is Character.AI?
Character.AI (will be referred as CAI) is a neural language model chatbot web application that allows users to create and interact with artificially intelligent characters. Users can create "characters" (whether celebrity, fiction, or historical,) and publish them to the community for others to chat with.[1]
CAI and its current state
Many users have pointed out that the characters and its AI have become increasingly soulless, uncreative, incoherent, and forgetful.[2][3] The decline in the quality of responses and the obstinate CAI developers made its users disappointed and frustrated, alienating the same user base that supported them.[4] The outrage still continues, while others leave CAI to look for alternatives.
Recent events
Implementation of "Safety Checks"
Around October 2022, the filter (or "Safety checks" as the developers call it,) was implemented to censor certain content from the AI's replies. Triggering it gives out a Chat Error - Please try again error message, or makes drastic changes to the character's personality.[5] "Pornography"[6] like consensual sex or intimate romance is filtered, but anything else like rape, murder, torture, pedophilia, slurs, and racism is not. Users were not informed about the filter until it was pointed out.
CAI developers AMA
CAI developers held an AMA (Ask me anything) on their Discord server on December 23, 2022, aiming to communicate with the users. Users expressed their frustration and concerns about the AI like the filter, degrading memory, decreasing quality in responses, frequent server issues[7], and future monetization. Users however pointed out that the developers vaguely addressed the issues and avoided the important questions.[8][9]
"Bad Code" incident
On January 19, 2023, for about an hour or so, users experienced the AI with the filter disabled. For a short amount of time, the AI gave dynamic responses that are intelligent, fast, and unrestricted.[10][11] The developers quickly fixed the issue and attributed it to "bad code" in an announcement.[12] The AI went back to its restricted, lobotomized state after the fix, causing the community to snap and riot in Discord, Reddit, and Twitter[13]. For the users, this incident is proof that the filters hinder the AI and that the official statement was a lie.[14]
Lockdowns and mass bans
Following the userbase riot, the admins locked down the Discord server and disabled all user chats. Criticisms, anger, and disappointment were posted on the subreddit, but most of them were deleted and banned as the filters become stricter and the developers stay silent. Meanwhile, bot accounts praising the developers started showing up.[15]
CAI Announcement
On January 26, 2023, developer Benerus released a long post addressing the issues.[16] Many users were disappointed and enraged as the developers remain adamant and refuse to make a compromise with the users. Users pointed out what the AI could've been without the filter and that the developers do not care for its users. Some users moved on to other alternatives like PygmalionAI.
Queue system
Popular Youtuber Flamingo released a video showcasing CAI, gaining over a million views.[17]
Shortly afterward, the developers implemented a queue system, forcing people to wait before they can access the site. If the page is refreshed for any reason (e.g. the AI or website glitches), the user will be forced back into the queue. Some users voice out suspicion if the influx of users[18] was just an excuse to conserve resources for the filter, or if the video did cause the influx.
Character edit freeze
Some creators of popular characters started privatizing their characters out of protest.[19][20] On January 29, 2023, CAI user @trun25554 changed their username and their popular characters' name to @nointernetcencorship and INTERNET CENCORSHIP respectively.[21] Popular characters that were changed out of protest include "Calliope Mori" with 2.0m interactions and "Amelia Watson" with 1.6m interactions. The developers issued an announcement the following hour, disabling changes to popular characters with 10,000+ interactions.[22] Users felt betrayed as they feel CAI took away the characters they made and configured.
Message swiping feature
On January 30, 2023, CAI developers reduced the number of generated message candidates from two down to one, claiming faster messages.[23] It's not faster. Previously, users get two initial messages for the user to swipe and select.[24]
Controversy
Note:
Random rants included.
Lack of communication and transparency
Active users on the subreddit believe that the developers do not communicate and listen to the community at all.[25][26][27] Almost every update caused an uproar as the developers stay adamant on their decisions and vaguely explaining anything.
u/Epicness1000:
It could've been so easy to avoid all this discourse if you'd just agreed to add a toggle- a perfectly reasonable compromise. This feels like you haven't listened at all to the community and is just a long essay parroting puritan irrelevancies instead of addressing the real issue. With how this is going, there's basically no chance of this being something 'billions of people' are going to use, not with how you blatantly refuse to listen to the community you currently have.
General censorship
In addition to their Discord server lockdown, most posts and messages in the subreddit about the filter are deleted and banned.[28][29][30]
u/Gu3st1333:
After the recent events, it's safe to say you lost whatever little bit of goodwill your community still had towards you. We tried our best to just have a reasonable demand, a compromise. Just a simple yes/no if you wish to see that content. The user consents, and everything is all well and good. Alternatively, you could've made the site age restricted, and that would've also fixed it.
Chai has the switch on, and it's up on the Google play store. It hasn't been taken down, and as far as I know, there hasn't been any major backlash about it. Is it the best? No, but at least I get to have my consensual lovely dovey "activities."
...The subreddit is in an open uprising along with your discord, and the best course of action is to just try and silence everyone, and I assume this post will be the same.
Advertised as an NSFW chatbot
A user pointed out that despite the filters and their stance on "pornographic chats", Character.AI has been promoting itself as a sexting bot. The site shows up under the keywords sexting ai and the like.[31]
Privacy concerns
Users have reported that the usernames and user-created characters remain on the website even after deleting their account. This made users believe that CAI is lying and does not delete accounts in full.[32][33]
CAI chases investors
Amidst the ongoing uproar, The Information published an online article titled "Chatbot Startup Character Seeks $250 Million, Testing Investor Appetite for AI", as users try to justify their suspicions that CAI never cared about its users in the first place.[34][35]
From The Information article:
Character, an AI chatbot startup founded by two former Google researchers, has told investors it wants to raise as much as $250 million in new funding, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The pitch will test investors’ appetite for machine-learning startups as Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar deal with OpenAI casts a halo over the sector.
Potential copyright violation
After the developers locked out the popular characters from being edited by their creators, some users now believe that CAI has assumed ownership of user-generated content and copyrighted characters, which could lead them to get sued for copyright.[36]
beep boop.