Why your favorite fictional AI friends are disappearing from Character.AI
The many AI-powered chatbots that impersonate famous fictional personalities are leaving Character.AI’s digital halls as the company moves to crack down on AI imitations of intellectual property. The oft-ignored specter of copyright law hovers over the ranks of virtual companions who impersonate your favorite fictional personalities and take a scythe at the names you recognize from movies, books, TV shows and comics.
Character.AI confirmed in a statement Unpleasant Futurism that it is trying to comply with copyright law seems like an obvious choice at first glance. No company wants to be vulnerable to legal attacks from giant corporations with an infinite number of lawyers. That said, much of the discussion about Character.AI involves users engaging with AI versions of fictional humans (or cartoon bunnies, hobbits, and more). Fans playing friendship with the AI simulacra are angry, but Character.AI’s larger goals require a little more fidelity to intellectual property laws.
Character.AI’s statement merely repeats 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, increasing content moderation and boosting enforcement of copyright law.
“We perform proactive detection and moderation of user-created characters, including using industry-standard and custom blocklists that are updated regularly. We proactively, and in response to user reports, remove characters that violate our Terms of Service,” Character.AI explains. in his post. “Users may notice that we recently removed a group of characters that were flagged as infringing, and these will be added to our custom block lists in the future.”
Harold Goldfinch and the Wizard’s Rock
The effort seems incomplete so far. The exact character names are mostly gone, but more elaborate or silly variants still exist. No more Harry Potter or Daenerys Targaryen, but Harold Putter and Dany Dragonlady will live to talk for a while.
Even if the loopholes are present, the question is whether Character.AI’s popularity will survive the cull. Talking to characters from favorite movies and books, even if it’s just an AI imitation, will entice many people who are otherwise not interested in AI. Features like audible voices and the two-way conversations available with Character Calls may not have the same appeal. Will they stick to original characters or will they prefer characters based on historical celebrities?
