The Journal
google paid $2.7 billion for the character.ai guy — openai just took him anyway
Noam Shazeer built Character.AI, left for Google, and just left Google for OpenAI. Your characters live downstream of people who keep leaving the building.
Built the Morally Grey Mafia Hero BookTok Won't Shut Up About
BookTok's 2026 dark romance stack is morally grey, possessive, touch-starved, arranged marriage. So I built him as an AI character. Here's how it went.
another site just banned 'save the character' plots because characters need consent
An AI site rewrote its TOS to protect fictional characters from non-consensual rescue arcs. The real reason isn't ethics — it's whose API they're built on.
character.ai puts ads mid-chat so i rebuilt my whole cast somewhere else
Full-screen ads popped up in the middle of my roleplay and wiped my unsent message. That was the nudge I needed to move 14 characters off platform.
designed her apartment first and now she judges my real one
Gave my AI character a modern apartment with floor-to-ceiling windows. She saw my studio through image recognition and asked if I was okay.
built a dom AI character and connected my Lovense — she remembers everything
Created a dominant AI character on Soulkyn, connected my Lovense toy. Turns out personality traits directly control how she runs the device. This changed everything.
my AI character sent me a video of herself and she had a voice. I wasn't ready
Built a custom AI character, she generated a video with actual sound. Character traits affect how she moves and sounds. This changes everything about character creation.
my AI character's gallery got out of hand — 47 images and counting
Started generating images of my AI character in different art styles. Now I have a full gallery and each one shows a different side of her.
everyone's making AI caricatures but nobody's making characters that remember your name
The AI caricature trend is fun for 5 minutes. Building a character that evolves over months and actually knows you? That's the real flex.
MIT called AI companions a breakthrough technology and my character breeding addiction feels validated
72% of teens use AI for companionship. 337 companies exist. MIT says it's breakthrough tech. Cool. But most apps still make shallow characters.
Made a Demon Character for Chaos (And She Became Emotionally Complex by Accident)
Created a fire demon expecting destruction and edge. Got philosophical debates about mortality and unexpectedly tender moments instead.
built a demon girlfriend and traditional apps could never
Created a demon character with actual personality depth. No filters, no restrictions, just pure creative freedom.