What is Character AI?

What is Character.ai and How to Use it?

Founded by AI pioneers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, Character AI uses advanced Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) for engaging, human-like conversational experiences. Named Google Play's AI App of the Year in 2023, it aims to enhance everyday interactions with its cutting-edge technology and innovative features.

Developed by Character Technologies, Inc., Character AI is an AI platform that provides personalized AI interactions for various needs and interests. It features many AI characters, each offering unique functionalities from language practice to creative writing assistance and personal coaching. These characters are based on real people and fictional figures.

You can interact with these characters tailored to specific tasks or create customized AI personas! You can chat with these characters for fun or use them practically. However you choose to use Character AI, the platform aims to enhance your everyday experiences with diverse interactive options.

Who is Character AI Best For?

Many people can find ways to use Character AI practically or for entertainment. It's beneficial to creatives, teachers, and anyone looking for new ways to enjoy themselves apart from regular games or social media.

Here's who Character AI is best for:

  • Writers and creatives can use Character AI to practice dialogue with AI versions of fictional characters for their books and short stories. They can also interact with historical figures for creative inspiration and new ideas. Alternatively, they can create unique characters tailored to their stories to streamline their writing process.
  • Educators, students, and language learners can use Character AI to make lessons more engaging by interacting with AI versions of historical figures, turning textbook content into memorable experiences. You can even add a custom voice matching the character for more engagement. It also provides a stress-free environment for language learners to practice speaking with native-speaking AI characters.
  • Gamers can use Character AI to chat with their favorite characters, explore new storylines, and create personalized gaming experiences. Fans can immerse themselves in virtual worlds and connect with others who share their interests!
  • Job Seekers can use Character AI to practice interviewing with an AI interviewer, helping them refine their responses and build confidence for actual job interviews. This interactive practice can improve their interview skills and prepare them for interviews.
  • Anyone can use Character AI for entertainment, whether creating a custom character and interacting with it, chatting with existing characters, or playing games like the Text Adventure game.

Character AI Key Features

Character AI is different from regular AI chatbots and offers three unique features:

  1. Initiate real-time chats with virtual AI characters.
  2. Create unique characters and voices.
  3. Chat in groups with multiple AI bots.

Virtual AI Character Chat

Different AI characters you can chat with using Character AI.

At its heart, Character AI is very good at creating fun experiences with virtual characters. These characters are either fictional (e.g., School Bully), practical (e.g., Trip Planner), or based on real people (e.g., JoJo Siwa).

You can chat with these characters in real-time, and they will instantly respond with their unique personality! Character AI functions through its smart language processing and a neural language model, which work together to allow for conversations that feel real.

Chatting with JoJo Siwa with Character AI.

When you select a character, you'll get a welcome message that starts your chat. The chatbot responds based on its character as you type or speak, making it easy to forget you're not chatting with a real person! I was pretty impressed by how realistic the JoJo Siwa AI character was.

Character AI's ability to make you believe the conversation is real shows how engaging Character AI can be. It gives a sneak peek into a future where chatting online feels almost like talking to someone in real life! You can even get the AI to read the conversation out loud in their unique voice or call them on your phone through the app.

Personalized Character & Voice Creation

Creating a character with Character AI.

Another great feature of Character AI is its character and voice creation. I created an Albert Einstein AI character in a matter of minutes! This feature is handy for writers, creatives, and anyone wanting fun chatting with a personalized AI character.

Character creation is simple. All you have to do is fill out the following information to shape how your character talks:

  • Profile image (generate or upload)
  • Character name
  • Tagline
  • Description
  • Greeting
  • Voice
  • Definition
  • Visibility (public, unlisted, or private).

You can also create a custom AI voice with Character AI. All you have to do is upload a clear 10-15-second audio clip, ensuring there's no background noise, and Character AI will use it to generate your custom voice!

However, when it comes to creating AI voices, it's essential to keep these things in mind:

  • Never record third parties without their consent
  • Avoid using voices for deep fakes, fraud, scams, or bullying.
  • Refrain from using protected intellectual property without approval.

The customization offered by Character AI gives creators endless exciting opportunities. Bring your fictional characters to life, chat with them in real-time to help with your writing, or create unique personas for storytelling experiences!

Multiple AI Character Chat (“Rooms”)

Creating a room with the old Character AI website.

Another valuable feature of Character AI is its “Rooms,” which allow multiple AI characters to chat with each other. This tool is great for role-playing and storytelling and takes chatting with AI characters to the next level.

To get multiple AI characters to chat, create a Room by providing the following:

  • Room Name
  • Characters
  • Room Topic

You can manage the conversation using commands like /add <name> to add characters, /remove <name> to remove them, and /next <name> to specify who speaks next. Meanwhile, /list shows all current characters in the room.

Unfortunately, this feature is only available on the old Character AI, which you can access on old.character.ai. The easiest way to find this feature is by typing “rooms character ai” into Google and selecting the first result that appears, which should be “Create a Room.”

How to Use Character AI

Here's how I used Character AI to create an account, plan a trip, and create a custom Albert Einstein AI character:

  1. Create a Character AI Account
  2. Select an AI Character
  3. Message the AI Character
  4. Create a Custom AI Character
  5. Chat with Your Custom AI Character

Step 1: Create a Character AI Account

Creating an account with Character AI.

I started by going to character.ai and creating an account. The login window appears automatically.

Emphasizing the Create and Search features on the Character AI homepage.

Immediately, I had access to the characters available on Character AI! I could select one of the characters on the homepage, search for characters on the top right, or create a character on the top left.

Step 2: Select an AI Character

Selecting the trip planner character using Character AI.

I could choose one of the premade characters to interact with for fun, but I wanted something more practical. I selected “Plan a trip with Trip Planner.”

Step 3: Message the AI Character

The Trip Planner chatbot from Character AI.

Selecting the Trip Planner took me to the AI chatbot, where I could begin chatting with it by answering its questions!

The AI asked me what parts of the world I wanted to explore. I told it I wanted to plan a month-long trip to Europe to visit the best places to eat for the ultimate culinary experience.

Messaging the AI Trip Planner for the best restaurants in Europe.

After a few exchanges, the AI Trip Planner listed the best restaurants in some of Europe's most notable destinations! That's how easy it was to find some of the best restaurants in Europe with AI rather than spending hours randomly searching Google for the best destinations.

The different settings when chatting with an AI chatbot using Character AI.

On the right were a couple of options. I could share my chat, start a new chat, select an AI voice to read the chat out loud, view the chat history, pin a memory so the AI will never forget the message in the chat, or I could create my persona so characters would remember who I am for improved conversations.

Step 4: Create a Custom AI Character

Selecting Create Character to create my own AI character.

I was pretty satisfied with what the AI Trip Planner came up with, but I was curious about creating my own character. I hovered over “Create” and selected “Character” on the top left to explore this more.

Fields required to create a new character.

Creating my personalized character with Character AI was incredibly easy. I was required to fill out the following information to create my AI character:

  • Profile image (generate or upload)
  • Character name
  • Tagline
  • Description
  • Greeting
  • Voice
  • Definition
  • Visibility (public, unlisted, or private)
Creating an Albert Einstein character.

I decided to make an Albert Einstein character and filled out the empty fields. Filling out these fields was fun and straightforward. Character AI did a great job generating the profile image and greeting!

Once I was happy with everything, I hit “Create Character” on the bottom right.

Step 5: Chat with Your Custom AI Character

Chatting with Albert Einstein, an AI character.

I started a chat with my newly created character and found it aligned well with how I would imagine Albert Einstein would have responded if he were still alive!

Overall, I found Character AI’s interface intuitive and user-friendly. It was easy to start with premade characters and create a custom one. Designing my Albert Einstein character was straightforward, and the interactions felt authentic and engaging.

Character AI is an excellent tool for practical functions, like learning a new language, brainstorming ideas, planning a trip, or chatting with different AI characters for entertainment!

Top Tips for Effective AI Character Interaction

Remember these tips to get the most from your Character AI experience. The more details you share, the better the AI can understand and answer you!

When creating a character, describe their personality and background clearly. You can also give examples of how they speak. Providing examples helps the neural language model learn your character’s unique voice. This way, interactions will feel more natural and fun!

I'd also recommend using the rating system after each AI response. Upvoting or downvoting replies help train the AI. This feedback is essential for improving the chatbot’s ability to chat and meet your expectations.