Character.ai is one of the largest AI chatbot platforms, with millions of users who create and interact with AI characters. Their CEO, Karandeep Anand, is joining Disney in a newly created SVP/CTO role and bringing members of the technical team with him. This is a link to the official announcement.

i haven't been on spicy chat in ages, but some bots i made years ago got flagged for being non-compliant with their guidelines. one said no sexualizing real people and the other said it had a gibberish description. they were both characters from a tv show (not sexualized, real people, or gibberish). did something recently change or is this normal?

Thank You & the Verdict Isn't Pretty

I asked r/characterairunaways 30 questions this month: where are things headed?

Many of you responded! 💛

The Numbers:

61% of you say AI chat platforms got worse this year. "Much worse" was the single most-chosen answer in the entire survey. By a 3-to-1 margin.

Character.AI is simultaneously the most-used platform, the most-quit platform, and the most-named "worst platform." That's a hostage situation.

What Broke It:

• Model downgrades (the old ones actually surprised you)
• Age verification (17% of you quit over this alone)
• Memory paywalls (63% of you said this is the #1 thing platforms should fix)
• Features nobody asked for (image generation, video generation, voice/audio generation)

What You Actually Want:

You're not asking for the future. You're asking for 2023 back: better prose, memory that works, characters you can take with you, a developer who listens, all with a price under $15 (or better yet, free).

You want platforms to stop betraying you & rug pulling.

The full results are here: Link to survey results

Including what you said about your favorite platforms, where the real alternatives are, why you're all stuck in snowglobes (AKA your most precious chat), and what the actual state of the exodus looks like right now.

I bought a domain for this so that this year you don't have to visit my github repo and download a pdf. & Again: TYSM for responding to the survey, I love this stuff. 😂 Hope y'all enjoy this as much as I do.

hi! i know the community is very hype over emersons and is turning to resellers to try to get the most coveted bags.

and i know this is already in the rules here but please beware of scammers. someone posted in this community multiple times trying to sell bags and deleted their posts when i asked why their image was generated using openai tools.

https://preview.redd.it/fax1lmssu1gh1.png?width=2762&format=png&auto=webp&s=ab3b27e4fca5f9df2e180c6a0243a70ec3ecc9ac

https://preview.redd.it/3yri2nwzu1gh1.png?width=1832&format=png&auto=webp&s=730ff2ee9e80cf61f997ff6869318519af0d42d9

https://preview.redd.it/9hywvef1v1gh1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13457f226844d02696620610730941183b0755ef

this is the exact image they used. it can be uploaded directly to openai's website to confirm this.

she was already banned by mods but has made a second account selling bags in another color trying to direct people to her off platform accounts.

https://preview.redd.it/tz6rv6kwynbh1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=362722bf697311fc99c043c0543bc359c7dbc8e4

https://forms.gle/PBJCoBJt9Xy1FLwi6 - Survey link

Takes 5 minutes to answer, I'll share the results publicly once we get enough responses! Curious about last years results? Check here.

Please & thank you!

Running v2 of last year's survey where I asked this community what you're actually using, what you love, what you hate, and what you're still looking for in AI chat platforms.

SURVEY HERE (please participate!)

Here's the thing: last year, when I compiled those results and shared them publicly, platform devs actually read them. People building these spaces used the feedback to understand what was genuinely frustrating users vs what was just Reddit discourse. Some of that data directly influenced feature discussions and priority decisions.

So if there's something broken about your current platform: features that don't work, missing features you desperately need, design choices that make no sense... this survey is a direct line to the people building the next iteration of these tools. You're not just venting into the void. You're giving developers actual insight into what matters to users who've tried multiple platforms and know what good looks like.

The landscape has shifted so much in a year. New platforms, dead projects, surprises, disappointments. I want to capture what that actually looks like from the people using these things daily.

Takes about 5 minutes, it's completely anonymous (your email isn't shared with me), and I'll post a full breakdown of the results once it's all in.

If you want to see better platforms, this is how you help make that happen.

Here's last years: link to results (July 2025)

This year's survey has more questions, but you can skip all but 1. Please participate & please share the survey with your pals!

https://preview.redd.it/qf83mqnsmoah1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=f06867c63edda5378e771594bc52f38e91d8f6f7