Artificial Intelligence is here to stay, as we witness dozens of AI-based programs being unveiled every second day. Irrespective of their technical advancements, one attribute is common among them – questionable privacy and safety policies.
These concerns become even more serious in the context of AI chatbots since they might be recording your personal information, user inputs, and more. Character AI is among such platform that is always under the radar of online security enthusiast. So, is Character AI safe?
According to technology experts, AI programs are yet to ensure 100% data safety, and more work needs to be done in this direction. Now and then, there are multiple instances of personal information getting leaked, identity misuse, and a bunch of other issues associated with AI chatbots.
Let’s analyze Character AI and try to determine how safe it is, if at all, what kind of data it records, and whether it jeopardizes your online safety and personal data.
Is Character AI Safe to Use?
As Character AI’s popularity soars, its safety remains a prevalent concern among its huge user base. It’s very hard to determine whether an AI platform is 100% secure or not, due to its complex data policies and privacy parameters.
Nearly all AI text generators record substantial about of your data and the information you share while engaging with the chatbot. Now, recording data is not new, it’s the concern regarding sharing your data with third parties which can do damage.
Returning to the Character AI, the platform has privacy and safety policies listed on the website.
To evaluate the validity of these privacy claims, we’ve conducted thorough research and reviewed hundreds of user feedback on popular online communities. We can ensure that Character AI is a secure platform and doesn’t pose a security threat to your online identity and personal information.
To know more about its safety measures, go to the website’s terms of service page and its privacy policies.
However, that’s not all. Just because a platform is open about its policies doesn’t guarantee your data safety, at least in the context of an AI chatbot. So what’s the issue here?
Does Character AI Save Conversations?
Character AI, just like the majority of AI-based chatbots, records a substantial amount of data, including your conversation within the website. Whatever information you share with the platform is accessible to Character AI developers. It may or may not be used for website improvement, language model training, and service quality enhancements.
The language models used by AI chatbots constantly learn from the user inputs and train themselves to provide more relevant responses. While this is unlikely to compromise your data security, many of us might be uncomfortable with AI accessing our personal information.
Character AI also guarantees that no data is shared with any third-party entities unless needed to prevent identity theft, counter online fraud, or address legal matters. All this information is documented on the website’s terms of use page.
How Does Character AI Work?
Character AI is an AI-powered chatbot that allows you to interact with various personalities and engage in life-like conversations. Users also have the opportunity to develop their own AI chatbot based on real or fictional characters and converse with them. Please remember that the platform is strictly meant for entertainment purposes and can’t be used to extract information, generate texts, solve complex problems, etc.
Upon signing up, you can pick from the available characters to initiate the conversation or make your own by providing basic information (category, behavior, background). There is also an option to open your character for public use on the website or keep it to yourself only.
What are the Safety Concerns Regarding the Use of Character AI?
So, while Character AI appears to be a secure and reliable platform on paper, some serious concerns regarding its safety need to be highlighted. Let’s take a look:
1. It Includes NSFW Content:
My biggest concern with Character AI is that currently, the platform is heavily infiltrated with age-restricted content. Since there is the freedom to create whatever character you want, people have started using it as an adult chat website, creating NSFW content that is unsafe for minors.
Yes, the developers have implemented a strict policy against NSFW content and provided an option to turn off mature content, but it’s not foolproof. Occasionally, you might encounter adult characters on the homepage of the website, something that not everyone appreciates.
In our research, 4 out of 10 times, the team encountered at least one inappropriate character on the homepage, even though the NSFW filter was on. Of course, with the filter turned off, it’s a different story altogether.
2. Privacy Issue:
With Character AI, generating an AI character using anyone’s name and picture is very easy. This raises serious privacy concerns regarding the personal information of individuals used to create the character.
Let me remind you that using someone’s personal information without their consent infringes on their right to privacy. Nevertheless, very little can be done in this regard, since the whole concept of the website is based on creating characters. But it raises some serious ethical questions. Imagine how you would feel if you found out there is a character based on you on a platform that also hosts adult-oriented content.
3. It Spreads Misinformation:
As mentioned above, Character AI, despite being an AI-based chatbot, can’t be trusted for serious or factual information. The language model is not trained to generate texts like ChatGPT, which you can use professionally. Instead, the platform excels in simulating human-like interactions, giving you the feel of a casual conversation with a friend.
However, if you ask, the chatbot will generate information anyway, most of which is not relevant and accurate. What the platform does is that it creates a character based on the information you provide.
This character then will use Natural Language Processing and AI algorithms to generate answers to your queries, irrespective of what you ask. However, the information can’t be deemed trustworthy due to the limited general knowledge of the language model.
This leads to disseminating fake information, propagating misleading narratives, and ultimately impacting public opinion. The best is to refrain from using any of the information generated by Character AI in any context, as it can lead to serious consequences. Again, this is not ChatGPT; it’s merely a platform where you talk to fictional AI chatbots.
4. Misuse of Identity:
Last but not least, Character AI is slowly becoming a hub of fake profiles, raising an issue of identity misuse. As I mentioned earlier, anyone could use anyone’s name and picture to create a public character on the website.
These characters can manipulate online identities, such as social media profiles, engage in social engineering scams, and spread false information under someone else’s name.
The most effective way to avoid identity theft is not to use real names or photos while creating a character. Please remember that using one’s personal information and digital photos without consent is not just ethically wrong but also violates their privacy rights.
How Does Character AI Collect and Use Your Information?
The platform Privacy Policy page explains how your data is collected, used, and shared among third parties (if needed) by Character AI. This data includes the personal information you use to register on the website, your device information, and your interactions with AI.
Let’s take a look at what types of data Character AI collects:
- Your name, email ID, and password you use during the registration process
- Your name, contact information, and content of your message if you connect to Character AI customer care
- Your social media information if you connect through social media pages (Instagram, Facebook, Medium, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Youtube
- Your browser logs data every time you use the website
- Device name, operating system, web browser
- Browser cookies
Here are the instances where Character AI may use your personal information or share it with third parties:
- To repair an ongoing issue with the platform
- To improve the quality of service, such as response times, output quality, etc
- To prevent online fraud, criminal activity, or misuse of the service
- To analyze service quality or conduct an internal performance survey
- For business purposes, creators may share your information with vendors and providers, including cloud services, email communication providers, marketing firms, web analytics services, etc.
Frequently Asked Questions:
According to IsItDownRightNow and the Reddit community, the Character AI website is working fine.
No! Character AI is a collection of chatbots based on real or fictional characters. Any information these characters generate is not real and must not be taken seriously.
Yes, Beta Character AI is safe. However, the features are still under development and may not be available completely. Also, it may cause your device or app to behave abnormally, such as poor loading speeds, unexpected shutdowns, etc.
The basic version of Character AI is free to use. However, for an enhanced experience, you can purchase C.AI+ for $9.99/month and enjoy features like priority access, faster response times, community access, and more.
Final Word:
With AI chatbots, balancing creative freedom and responsible use can be challenging. On the one hand, Character AI provides an opportunity to have interesting conversations with multiple AI chatbots under one hood, and users must practice caution while using them.
It’s very important to familiarize yourself with the platform’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policies before getting on. Also, as a user, you must use the website responsibly to not violate anyone’s privacy while protecting yours.
I am an engineer by education, tech writer by profession, and a motor sport fan by heart.