Like Tabu but with an AI chatbot: Character AI publishes games

In the game Speakeasy, you have to get an AI chatbot to say a predefined word. However, similar to the classic game Taboo, there are five forbidden words that you are not allowed to give the AI. One example would be the word croissant, which the chatbot has to say. However, you are not allowed to use the following words in the conversation that is supposed to lead to this: France, Paris, pastry, butter, bake.

Like War of Words, Speakeasy is only available to paying subscribers of Character AI. War of Words is a language duel in which an AI decides who has won. Both games can ensure that people spend more time on the platform –, a goal of all services.

In principle, Character AI users have numerous AI chatbots at their disposal with which they can converse. Many have special interests, so everyone can find a suitable virtual boyfriend or girlfriend. Of course, these friendships can also become problematic. In the USA, a family is suing because a chatbot allegedly suggested to a 17-year-old that he should kill his parents. There is also a class action lawsuit listing several dangers of chatbots, such as sexualized content to which children were exposed. These are AI chatbots whose guardrails can always have holes in them.

Character AI is running, meta characters are not

Character AI chatbots are often geared towards young people. There is the “gamer boy” who wants to talk about gaming, as well as numerous anime characters. If you can't find an existing chatbot that you like, you can also create your own. The new games can be played with all the existing characters. To protect young people at least a little, the service has introduced a time-out after 60 minutes in the chat – but this is only a hint.

Google owns large parts of the company and the founders of the start-up, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, are now fully employed by Google. Character AI describes itself as an “entertainment platform”. While the concept with the various AI chatbots for Character AI seems to be working and the service is being used, Meta has removed all AI chatbots from its platforms. There was apparently very little interest in them. But there have also been accusations about Meta's characters. The responses from the AI chatbots were not always helpful, and some were at least questionable.

(emw)