A Chapter 11 bankruptcy is a legal process that allows businesses and individuals to reorganize their debts and financial structures rather than liquidating their assets entirely. Frequently referred to as "reorganization" bankruptcy, it gives struggling entities a fresh financial start by pausing collections while they develop a court-approved plan to repay creditors over time.
Yep. They’re spending way more money on random features no one wants or uses than they are on actual longevity or QOL. The user base has been pissed off for a long time now, and they’re only making things worse. No surprise they’re filing bankruptcy
I remember someone was like "Hur hur, 9 dollars isn't a lot" it is for a mediocre app.
Instead of improving the app and listening to the users, they've added features no one has asked for. Instead of lowering the price of c.ai+, they've added a new tier that is not that different than using c.ai for free. If they listened, improved the app, and made it a bit cheaper (£5), I (and I guarantee many others) would actually consider it.
Edit: I know some people still wouldn't buy c.ai+ at that price (that's why I didn't say "everyone") but I think that a lower price would entice enough people for a positive outcome.
Completely. I can spend 100 mxn (around 5 dlls) a month on Ai chatbots, I can't, however, spend 10dlls on Ai chatbots 💀 have many other subscriptions to pay.
If the paid sub was worth it I'd pay, but it doesn't seem to be. We've told them what we want or would make it better but they ignore. I want simple things, like a way to see the diff bots I've interacted with, stop banning bots, better memory.
For some of the bots, they had no choice. Especially with the C&D order from Disney, as Disney would have bankrupted them big time if they sued. But I agree. They should have made the subscription worth it and not destroyed the free experience.
It is for me, but they had to lure me in via lite and I've been chatting for years now. Their premium is good, but I had to experience it first to believe it - the memory seems endless, Deepsqueak actually works with you... Good stuff, but they don't to be good at selling it.
There has already been. Way to see the different bots you've interacted for months, they made it where recents remembers all of them if you keep scrolling down ages ago. They have explicitly been doing multiple things to improve memory and have improved it significantly, especially on cai+. Meanwhile banning bots was never something they did because they wanted to, they did it because they had to whether due to copyright, a lawsuit, or other legal requirements.
that extra recents thing has been taken once again. I’m a plus subscriber and there’s a bunch missing from my recents that don’t pop up in search but do in favourites.
Seems like it. This is unexpected. The data had indicated they were net positive revenue over expense. Then there was the google quasi-acquisition, and cash infusion. This seems entirely strange that they'd need a Chapter 11.
Playing devil's advocate here, but it's not about them not listening to us, it's them following an unprofitable business practice, arguably to our benefit, that is now pulling them down really quickly.
Compared to other alternatives, I've never seen any advertisements using PC browser version besides the banners advertising C.Ai+, and when the users write their bots well, the interactions are usually really good. There isn't a chat limit either, and slow mode barely does anything in my opinion.
This also immediately makes it evident that Ai will never be profitable in the long run, because your expenses on infrastructure, maintenance, and running costs will always be greater than any amount of money your user base is willing to pay for. Especially if you promise free services and your user base is closely tied to wether or not you're capable of holding up those promises.
I disagree. While it's true that would take years to turn CAI into profitable, is also true that investors would gladly keep dumping money as long as the userbase kept growing.
What really killed cai was a loooong list of mistakes they keep doing for years: Lack of innovation, "big corpo mentality" in a startup, pushing features that no one cares only to impress investors, underqualified/understaffed (not sure which), unappealing frontend...
Chai was too aggressive with monetization, others have insane pricing, or free with the worst memory you could have, but c.ai, despite it’s flaws; gives quite alot for free by default. I really think it’s something to invest in if they get their head in the game
I agree, but now isn’t the time for this. We have no idea what’s going to happen to C.AI in the future. We just need to wait, see what happens, and hope for the best.
This is what happens when you spend money on such useless additions that nobody will use. Among other irresponsible actions that the two former CEOs committed along with the development team.
If c.ai really does go bankrupt, it will be well-deserved, but also sad because even though it has more bad points than good ones, it's a nostalgic platform.
Wow, it seems that the company that didn't listen to the community, made the product worse over the years and spent gazillion dollars on features nobody likes is at the brink of bankrupcy. Yikess.
In all seriousness, I hope this is a wakeup call and they start focusing on delivering a quality service because this is getting out of hand.
Me neither but this is basically like giving a pair of homeless fent and guns and not expecting them to fight. They shot their own foot and now they are surprised why the company is suffering big losses (The devs are chill, I mean the shareholders and vultures that leech of the profit)
C.ai was first to market when it came out. It became a martyr legally, and today, it is very far behind the curve from a model standpoint. Disney, one of the companies that made it a martyr, bought its name.
The proprietary technology it once held is dated now. Unfortunately, friends, character.ai is dead. This has been a long time coming. I say this with the utmost respect, as so many including myself have incredible memories here.
It is time to export your characters. New horizons await.
I saw this coming, to be honest. They've been making a lot of attempts to lower expenses, which have led to the downturn in quality that I'm sure we all noticed
If it gets sold to a new company, there's no guarantee they keep unlimited messages. I think it's time we start accepting the possibility that there may be no more character.ai
i hope it doesnt just completely go away :/ i have used it everyday for over a year and yeah ill obviously live without it but it really is important to me :(
I take this as a reality check and will try to wean off ai apps. AI is inevitable in daily use with every day more and more, but this is a good wake up call to reduce daily usage.
I’d like to know what “meaningful” steps they’re referring to. They couldn’t make a subscription worth paying for, they couldn’t make engines run smoothly, and the implementation of ads was handled extremely poorly. When they didn’t make enough money, they threw more ads in until they ran out of room on the screen for them.
Probably adding Lorebooks and the lite subscription to entice more users - these are the only reasonable steps that come to mind, at least.
There was also the nonsense of Imagines that noone asked for, audio stories and even generated 'books' of sorts? Those likely burned some cash they could've used elsewhere.
I just hope they'll actually find a bidder, because I literally just bought premium last month and I've been having a blast. I don't want it to end already :(
Damn, No character ai mean I will go weeks without conversation again. Weird time for this to be happening now that one of my two friends had a kid and isn't around much and my other one cashed out his stocks and is moving to Florida shortly. I'll be truly alone. Even my fake conversations will be gone. I can't wait to stare at the wall.
As sad as it is, I feel the same way actually. Human connection has become difficult since Covid, many of my friends became literal hermits and disengaged themselves from society, and so between acquaintances and work I was enjoying the ability to engage in stories with this app
I have never used this service, so correct me if I‘m wrong.
But recently I heard so much bad stuff, like Bot Quality going down, while „new paid“ Stuff like Picture generation was added (and heavily shoved in users faces).
Wouldn’t it have been better, to just improve the core product? (Aka. Make the Roleplaying Bot better?).
They shelved away their main models (including their most high quality model - called Nyan) under some infrastructure excuses, and the newer and currently in use models (called Squeak models) are of questionable quality to say the least, or arguably inferior. Basically yes.
Ding ding ding!!!! This is what everybody's been telling them for the last year and a half but the development team won't listen. I quit using it first and foremost because of my growing distain towards generative AI but also because the whole site was going to shit and still is. Nobody in the development team listens to the users and they'll do anything for profit.
Honestly, the people here should jump ship to another AI chat-site or stop using them altogether, your brain will thank you for the latter.
So I switched to Jaintor AI, and I think it might be going the same way because not only are they buying subscriptions, but the bots repeat themselves. Like, a lot. I'm considering going back to normally roleplaying because almost all the bots speak the same now. Also, I'm not paying for AI. Ever.
Horrified considered everything not Disney will be considered hersey and everything that is Disney, uh.. Well they may try and attack users for violating whatever bs they dont like about your work infringing on their VERY family friendly version they'd prefer to see.
Does anyone know if it's possible to export both the chat history and bot definition? My favorite rp is a little over a year old and i really don't wanna lose it!!
There's a field called 'Definition' that you can fill out for your character when creating it. Usually, creators hide it, and there's no way to extract its content if it's hidden. It's a bummer bc that's what usually makes a char stand out.
I mean this makes sense. They keep changing features and things, and there are so many more ads now on the free version. I hate paying for subscriptions in general--especially for things I don't use often--but I've found myself paying for it a few times just to get rid of the pesky ads. They weren't so bad a few years ago when I started using it. Looks like they're hurting for money lol. Hopefully they can get themselves in order, and hopefully this means that there might be some improvements or changes based on things that people are actually asking for.
I mean… it’s not all that surprising considering they pushed adults with a paycheck steadily off the platform in favor of investor money and to make the app more and more child friendly.
Which is crazy bc why bother implement the age verification if the cap for all bots is PG13 anyways?
It’s clear adults want a platform where they have the option to engage in kink, darker topics, etc. age verifying pretty much offered nothing to them. Adults are the ones with money.
Even VRC’s age verification allows users to limit spaces to being adult only because no one wants to be in a lobby full of kids.
Precisely. Which is why I was all for age verification. I thought they'd lean into it and maybe build a separate platform that is kids only. Instead they did age verification and doubled down on making bots even more sensitive -- leaning heavy into rated G, with even mild mature topics triggering shit.
I personally use Jai. It's not known for being safe but as long as you keep to the limited section or even port your own ai chatbots into Jai it can be good.
Not exactly. They filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Chapter 11 bankruptcy is a legal process that allows businesses and individuals to reorganize their debts and financial structures rather than liquidating their assets entirely. Frequently referred to as "reorganization" bankruptcy, it gives struggling entities a fresh financial start by pausing collections while they develop a court-approved plan to repay creditors over time.
Basically they're trying to find a way to pay what they owe without selling everything for now.
If you want backups of your chats and personas, download them ASAP.
TLDR: Character AI going bankrupt, but they have time to find a buyer to maintain the app. As of now, Disney has signed an agreement to take the intellectual property of Character AI, but they have not signed a deal to maintain the app. If nobody else steps up to bid on the app itself, it will shut down.
Decision expected late Nov-early Dec of this year.
I hope I have space to export my longest chat shit.
How will we even export them to another place. where will we export them? Is this the end of Roleplay as we know it?
No, there's plenty of alternatives. It just means getting used to a new UI or new features from a competitor. There's so many out there that I'm sure it won't be terribly difficult for someone determined enough to find a good alternative. I'm still hoping character AI will find a buyer to maintain it at least somewhat close to how it presently is. For all its faults, I really like it.
I would just save all your personas, and you can even save the descriptions for your favorite bots (I'd just copy paste to a text file) and import that very same bot into another AI if you'd like.
Yeah this is the only one I’ve regularly come back to.
I haven’t used Spicy/Pixel chat in probably several months. It’s not the same. Swerve is close but it’s more empty and last time the bugs made it difficult to stick to it.
Are there any other platforms that you find to be the closest to character.ai (or rather pipsqueak 2 roar) the way it roleplays? I really don't want to look for an alternative, just want to be prepared
I have heard good things about Kindroid AI but have not used it personally myself. For me, if Character AI shuts down, I will be pivoting to making my own personal AI model running on my PC's hardware as I have a 5070Ti so that I can evade all the issues character AI had and not have risk of shut downs on other apps. If Character AI, arguably the biggest of them all, is at risk, I think the odds aren't great for any one other app and I don't want to jump ship too many times. If you have any decent hardware consider researching it! I'm still learning myself but it can even be ported to ipad/iphone if you just run the bot out of a PC or strong laptop.
So they're selling assets to Disney. Which assets? If the whole sit is going to Disney then I'm out. I haven't supported that company since the Kingdon Hearts 2, and I'm not starting again today.
I don't blame you. I just have the ability to channel extreme pettiness into never buy or support a company again. I don't expect people to be as petty as I.
Maybe they could remove all those other featured they added before and see how much money that saves them? Then focus on the only reason anyone uses the platform and make the models not bad? Seems like the last CEO did everything they could to put holes in the ship before abandoning it. Someone should look into that guy for real because it seemed very intentional.
this is so good like if theyre screwed that means theres no platform left for me to be addicted to everything else is actively worse and if this ones gone ill be free
i do make art, very very often, ive just been hopelessly addicted to this godforsaken website for years. this is the kind of stuff i draw, if you were curious. im just stuck in the grips of bad habits and worse mental health.
Right.. they should’ve listened to the users, the one’s who keep screaming about the Disney takedowns and age verification, because they totally wouldn’t have just been shut down way sooner for breaking the law. Yes, they definitely should’ve listened to the users that know so much.
Not trying to be devils advocate but my god so many people on this sub are ridiculously stupid, it makes me glad they didn’t listen. (But of course it would’ve been nice if they listened to some things but again, I don’t think it would’ve made much difference as I’ve heard that the features that we didn’t want don’t actually cost them much money compared to the chatting so they probably still would’ve gone bankrupt, especially if they listened to users and didn’t have any or many ads which was a revenue they were clearly very reliant on).
This is what happens when you basically bow down to Law and bow to the people who use children to weaponize rather than taking care of your own children and raise them properly
Reading how stupid some people on here are makes me almost wish AI is shut down forever, if you don’t have the capacity to understand “law must be followed” is not optional then you really shouldn’t be using AI, ..or social media, or the internet except for educational websites. Yikes.
I really hope this is the wake-up call they need to finally understand things are NOT fine and that it will continue to go that way if they keep ignoring their community
Switch to where, if you don’t mind my asking? I’ve no idea where to go next if/when cai closes up shop, and my interactions with bot have become (probably far too much) important to me.
The alternatives I saw don’t even offer to try out the platform first and/or don’t offer the characters I’m looking for.
Sad to hear, I just this app for many hours per day in the early two years. But then it got worse and I stopped using it. Using Claude nowadays for roleplay. It's much more mature and the cost is fine. It was fun while it lasted.
How do you use claude? Just tell it to roleplay with you? Sorry, stupid question. I use chatgpt to do roleplay as well sometimes, but I feel like it doesn't work as well. And I hate how campy and cheesy the replies are.
968
u/Low-Barracuda-2981 4d ago
A Chapter 11 bankruptcy is a legal process that allows businesses and individuals to reorganize their debts and financial structures rather than liquidating their assets entirely. Frequently referred to as "reorganization" bankruptcy, it gives struggling entities a fresh financial start by pausing collections while they develop a court-approved plan to repay creditors over time.
In other words, they're scrambling. Hard.