Users of the chatbot app Character.ai have been melting down on Reddit and begging the company to stop messing with the app after a series of changes that users say has completely ruined the app. The feedback is so negative that I have never seen a community or user base so uniformly upset and so consistently aligned in its view.

Character.ai is one of the most popular AI companion chatbot apps; it allows users to create virtual characters to chat with. Over the last few years, users have used the chatbots for companionship, to form romantic relationships, to entertain themselves, and to role-play. Like other popular chatbot apps, Character.ai has also been used for abuse and harassment, and the company is being sued both by the families of users who killed themselves after using Character.ai and by the state of Pennsylvania after AI characters on the platform claimed to be licensed medical professionals. In recent weeks, Character.ai, like other AI companies, has increased its usage restrictions for free users of the app, which highlights the fact that AI is very expensive to run. The app has also gotten rid of several AI models that users liked and has replaced them with a set called Pipsqueak 2; one user told me the new model feels “lobotomized” and generic and that it feels like the new model tends to narrate action but does not often participate in dialogue. The company has also put lots of ads in the app, is heavily promoting a new video feature that animates the AI character rather than traditional chatting, added new filters/content restrictions, and added invasive age verification.

Looking at what’s happened to Character.ai is useful insofar as it shows the type of enshittification that is increasingly coming to AI tools across the entire sector and the associated user backlash. This is happening because of a mix of the unworkable economics of many AI apps and increased regulation on AI apps as they are accused of playing a part in the death of their users or being used for abuse. 

On the r/CharacterAI subreddit there are literally hundreds of posts about how useless Character.AI has become, and there are also separate subreddits called CharacterAIRevolution, CAIRevolution, Characterai_rebellion, characteraiventing,and CharacteraiResistance that are entirely dedicated to looking for alternatives to CharacterAI or pushing back against changes the company has made. Recent top posts on the CharacterAI subreddit, which is partially moderated by the creators of the app, include “Character ai is dead,” “CharacterAI, this is the single worst mistake you have EVER made,” “Anybody else quitting?,” “I’m no longer addicted, I guess,” “We did not enjoy the past updates AT ALL,” and “They finally shot themselves in the foot. RIP C.AI.” A “Feedback Megathread” on the PipSqueak 2 chat model, which was posted by Character.ai employees has 1,000 comments which are almost entirely negative; the top comment is “I HATE pipsqueak 2. It’s way over dramatic, I can’t stand it.” Other comments include “HOT. ASS. OH MY GOD THIS THING IS HOT ASSSS!!!,” “It honestly may be the worst chat style to exist on the platform,” “It’s the worst model yet,” “What I think about PipSqueak 2? IT FUCKING SUCKS, THAT’S WHAT,” and “Terrible compared to the models you got rid of. Thanks for nothing.” 

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