Why your favorite fictional AI friends are vanishing from Character.AI

LovabledanielsDecember 4, 2024109 Views

The many AI-powered chatbots emulating famous fictional personalities are leaving the digital halls of Character.AI as the company seeks to crack down on AI imitations of intellectual property. The oft-ignored specter of copyright law hovers over the ranks of virtual companions imitating your favorite fictional personalities, taking a scythe to the names you recognize from films, books, TV shows, and comics.

Character.AI confirmed in a statement to Futurism that it is seeking to comply with copyright law seems like an obvious choice at first glance. No company wants to be vulnerable to legal attacks by giant corporations with infinite lawyers. That said, a huge amount of discourse on Character.AI involves users engaging with AI versions of fictitious people (or cartoon rabbits, hobbits, and more). Fans roleplaying friendship with the AI simulacra are upset, but Character.AI’s larger goals demand a bit more fidelity to intellectual property laws.

Character.AI’s statement just restates the relevant part of a blog post explaining how the company recently updated its terms and conditions. The changes emphasized making the platform safer for children and upping content moderation as well as boosting copyright law enforcement.

“We conduct proactive detection and moderation of user-created Characters, including using industry-standard and custom blocklists that are regularly updated. We proactively, and in response to user reports, remove Characters that violate our Terms of Service,” Character.AI explained in its post. “Users may notice that we’ve recently removed a group of Characters that have been flagged as violative, and these will be added to our custom blocklists moving forward.”

Harold Putter and the Magician’s Rock

The effort appears incomplete so far. The characters with the exact name of a character are mostly gone, but more elaborate or silly variants survive. No more Harry Potter or Daenerys Targaryen but Harold Putter and Dany Dragonlady live to talk for at least a little longer.

Even with the loopholes in place, it’s questionable if Character.AI’s popularity will survive the cull. Talking to figures from favorite films and books, even just an AI imitation, will entice plenty of people otherwise uninterested in AI. Features like audible voices and the two-way voice conversations available with Character Calls might not have the same draw. Will they stick around for original characters or do they prefer those based on historical celebrities?