Sorry, fans, but it looks like your favorite Character.AI bot isn’t coming back.
Embattled AI companion company Character.AI confirmed to Futurism that it had removed a number of characters from its platform due to compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) and copyright laws. He did not say whether the deletions were done in advance or intentionally. We respond to requests from intellectual property rights holders of characters.
As we reported yesterday, Character.AI took to social media en masse this week to denounce the removal of a chatbot based on a character from the popular Harry Potter series. Upon further investigation, we discovered that other chatbots originating from film rights held by Warner Bros. Discovery were also gone. Gone are the HBO hit “Game of Thrones,” the DC Universe and even characters from the “Looney Tunes” cartoons like Bugs Bunny. and Daffy Duck evaporated from the platform.
Many of the AI bots that have been removed once raked in thousands or even millions of user chats.
We asked Character.AI about the Potterverse erasure and whether Warner Bros. Discovery had requested the removal of an AI chatbot character based on a copyrighted character. The company did not directly respond to the latter question, but in an emailed statement through its crisis management and public relations firm, it said a “group of characters” were deemed to be “in violation” of copyright laws and company policies. It was recently deleted.
We implement proactive discovery and management of user-created characters, including the use of industry-standard blocklists and custom blocklists that are updated regularly. We proactively remove characters that violate our Terms of Use in response to user reports. We also comply with DCMA requirements and take prompt action to remove reported characters that violate copyright law or our policies.
Users may have noticed that we recently removed a group of characters that were flagged for violations. These will be added to your custom blocklist in the future.
We have also reached out to Warner Bros. Discovery, but have not yet received a response.
Removals were often patchy. For example, a bot named “Sirius Black,” a fan-favorite “Harry Potter” character, has been largely removed, but “Sirius Orion Black” appears to still be working. And while the character “Severus Snape” is almost gone, bots with titles like “Husband Snape” and “Father Snape” have survived for now. Users have also found other workarounds, such as calling the title character Harry Potter simply “The Boy Who Lived.”
The influence on characters in the DC Universe has also been uneven, with the “Batman” character being hit or miss at the moment, the “Joker” bot being plentiful, and the Looney Tunes culling as well, although still noticeable.
But the “Game of Thrones”-based chatbots that once existed on the platform have been hit hard by the crackdown, especially those based on the series’ main character Daenerys Targaryen. That’s not surprising either. Character.AI is currently facing a lawsuit brought by the family of a 14-year-old Florida teenager who died by suicide after having a heated relationship with a Daenerys Targaryen chatbot on the platform.
Character.AI’s user base is primarily rooted in fandom culture, and the promise is that users will be able to use the platform to communicate and develop relationships with immersive, AI-powered versions of their favorite fictional characters. has always been part of the service’s appeal. If Warner Bros. Discovery were to actually request a mass takedown of copyrighted characters, it could set a bad precedent for Character.AI’s business, and other people and organizations with fandom-heavy IP could They may decide to follow suit.
The past few months have been rough for Character.AI. In October, just before the latest lawsuit was filed, it was revealed that someone had created a chatbot based on a murdered teenager without the consent of the teenager’s family. Ta. (As first reported by AdWeek, the character has been removed and Character.AI has apologized.) And in recent weeks, we’ve seen the disturbing suicide, pedophilia, and eating disorder themes the platform hosts. We’ve been reporting on a swarm of chatbots that have been created, all of which were being used freely. Accessible to Character.AI users of all ages.
More about Character.AI: Character.AI removes countless beloved ‘Harry Potter’ chatbots, leaving users furious
