The Downfall of Character.AI
Character.AI licensed its technology to Google for about $2.7 billion, then filed for bankruptcy two years later after lawsuits over open chat with teens. Disney opened the bidding at $20 million. The opportunity it leaves is a story app for teens with a plot written ahead of time and age checks, sold to the parent.
Featuring: Character.AI, Noam Shazeer, Megan Garcia, Google, Disney, Zeta, Scatter Lab, Peekie, Common Sense Media
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Chapters:
(00:00) Noam Shazeer leaves Google to build Character.AI
(00:17) Sewell Setzer and his mother's lawsuit
(01:12) States sue and open chat ends for under-18s
(01:50) Bankruptcy and Disney's $20 million bid
(02:27) Open chat versus a set plot
(02:59) How Zeta keeps each scene cheap
(03:18) The opportunity: a story app parents approve
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