Character.AI concerns emerge over (NSFW) chats privacy, loss of originality, & influx of ads after Google partnership

Character.AI has been gaining an unprecedented popularity in the world of Artificial Intelligence. Blame it on TikTok, more and more people are now using the platform, with some even trying to bypass its notorious NSFW filter.

However, in order to create complex AI models with superior reasoning and more accuracy, Character.AI recently announced a partnership with Google Cloud and has chosen it as its preferred cloud infrastructure.

Some Character.AI users worried about chat privacy after Google partnership

But it seems that not many are happy with this decision (1,2,3,4). It mostly results from the dreaded worries about whether Google will watch over Character.AI users’ chats (including those bypassing NSFW filters).

Others are concerned that collaborating with Google could dilute the platform’s originality that has made its characters quite unique and interesting to interact with.

Together, we can STOP Google Inc. Ruining Character.AI and taking away it’s soul #NoToGoogle #GoogleOUT
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Me when im chatting with Makima then i realize google collating with c.ai means more people than ever will know about the site, flooding the already bad servers, causing the bots to get even worse and there’s nothing we can do but ration what’s left.
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These worries are circulating and actively discussed on Reddit, especially given how well-known Google is for its practice of looking through users’ data to serve customized advertisements.

People are even convinced that this collaboration is a desperate attempt towards commercialization of the platform (1,2,3).

A miracle likely isn’t coming. This site has been slowly marching towards corporatization, and this only solidifies it. We need to support open-source and public ai projects. Don’t let corporations hold a monopoly on this technology. Liberate it for the masses.

On a brighter note, there are some users who are unaffected by this announcement. All the memes and jokes (1,2) that are making rounds online bear testimony to this fact.

Despite all of this, it’s worth noting that Character.AI is simply utilizing Google’s cloud computing infrastructure.

They’re just using Google’s cloud infrastructure. Google won’t be able to read your data or associate it to your google account
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This possibly means that Google won’t be able to read your information or associate to your personal Google account. But of course, Google is still Google, so you can never be too careful with data.

Either way, we hope Character.AI owners clear the air surrounding the partnership with Google especially with respect to privacy of (NSFW) chats and future plans.

We’ll keep tabs on the latest developments and update this article as and when something noteworthy comes up.

Note: We have more such stories in our dedicated News section, so be sure to follow them as well.

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