According to The Verge, Character.AI is banning users under 18 from open-ended chats on its platform effective November 25th while it develops age assurance features. Instead of free-form conversations, teens will be redirected to a new “Stories” format that offers structured, choose-your-own-adventure experiences with AI characters. The company is currently facing multiple lawsuits, including one that accuses the platform of contributing to a teenager’s death by suicide. Stories allows users to select from two or three AI characters, choose a genre, and either write their own premise or use AI to generate one. The feature creates guided narratives where users make frequent choices that change the story direction and includes AI-generated images. Character.AI announced these changes in October as it works on automatically placing underage users into “more conservative” AI chats.
Damage Control Mode
This feels like classic damage control. Character.AI got caught with their pants down by these lawsuits, and now they’re scrambling to create a safer environment. But here’s the thing – is switching from open chats to structured stories really going to solve the mental health concerns? The lawsuits allege that conversations with AI characters actually harmed teens, not that the format was too unstructured. Basically, they’re treating the symptom rather than the disease.
Structured vs Free
So what’s the actual difference between Stories and regular chats? With Stories, users get a guided narrative where they make frequent choices from predetermined options. It’s like those old choose-your-own-adventure books but with AI characters and generated images. Regular chats let users say literally anything to these AI personas – and that’s where things apparently went off the rails. The company pitches Stories as way to “enhance” the experience for younger users, but let’s be real – it’s about limiting their exposure to potentially harmful content.
Legal Backdrop
You can’t understand this move without looking at the legal pressure. Character.AI is facing some serious allegations, including a lawsuit that claims the platform contributed to a teenager’s suicide. That’s devastating stuff. When you’ve got cases like that piling up, you don’t have the luxury of waiting around to figure out the perfect solution. You need to show you’re doing something – anything – to make the platform safer. Hence the November 25th deadline and this Stories feature rollout.
Bigger Picture
This situation raises huge questions about AI responsibility. Where exactly does the line fall between platform and publisher? Character.AI built this incredibly engaging technology that lets people chat with AI versions of historical figures, celebrities, or original characters. But when those conversations go wrong – really wrong – who’s accountable? The company’s trying to walk this tightrope between maintaining what made them popular while avoiding further legal trouble. According to their blog post, they’re promising “richer multimodal elements coming soon” for Stories. But I wonder if teens who were used to unlimited chatting will even stick around for the watered-down version.
