Does Character AI save chats? A guide to the platform's user privacy

From Donald Trump to Bob Marley or even Spiderman, Character AI allows you to create an AI chatbot based on any character you desire and their platform will take on its persona. This unique feature has propelled Character AI into becoming one of the best AI chatbots open to the public. However, there is one privacy concern that users are wary of: does Character AI save chats?

In short: Yes, Character AI does save chats. However, the answer is a bit more nuanced than a simple “yes” or “no”, and thus requires additional context. All chatbots inherently need to collect a certain amount of data to function optimally (including ChatGPT), but the extent of data collected can vary greatly between platforms.

Additionally, these chats are saved in your account for easier access to previous conversations. However, whether these conversation logs can be accessed is a point of contention.

Even though Character AI ranks among the best AI apps worldwide, it is important to realize that AI technology is still in its infancy and different companies have their own stance when it comes to user privacy.

To help users to make a well-informed decision on what they are signing up for, we’ve done a deep-dive into Character AI so that you know what the platform does, what data it collects, and whether it’s safe for you to use.

Among the influx of new generative AI tools, Character AI stands out from the rest. A neural network trained on massive data sets, this platform allows you to create and interact with role-playing chat bots.

The platform was built by Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Fritas, former Google engineers who were trying to create a playful twist to generative AI-based chatbots. After OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Character AI is currently the second most popular AI chatbot with over 190 million monthly visitors.

Character AI lets you create an AI-powered character of your choosing and interact with it however you wish. Whether the character is living, dead, or even an inanimate object, you can input the type of character you want to interact with and their proprietary technology creates the chat bot using the selected personality.

This AI-generated persona includes things like the character’s tone, their sense of humor, their opinions, their political views, and all other information that makes them *them.*

Apart from simply asking questions, you can use the AI-chatbot to have conversations, tell jokes, or even as a research assistant. Want to know more about what George Washington did in his free time?

How about a few one-liners from Bob Saget? Maybe some of the lesser-known research papers published by Sigmund Freud? You can ask them yourself! (Well, at least their AI-generated persona.)

Even though you should not rely on the information being completely accurate, it is entertaining and an interesting tool to harness the power of AI nonetheless.

You also have the option to interact with chatbots made by other users, which is a major feature of the platform. Additionally, your old chats are saved in your account history for easier access and retrieval.

Character AI is completely free to use, although they offer a paid version as well which has extra features.

Their paid version is called Character.AI+ and provides features such as faster responses and priority access when servers are experiencing high demand.

Paid subscribers also have access to newer models of the platform before the general public, and access to an exclusive “Plus Member Community.” The paid subscription costs USD $9.99 per month.

Character AI has a few shortcomings when it comes to security, at least for the time being. For starters, Character AI does not offer multi-factor authentication, leaving users vulnerable to data breaches or hacks.

Character AI’s privacy policy is vague when it comes to disclosing whether developers have access to user chats, which is not a good sign. A major red flag is that Character AI’s chats are not encrypted.

This means that the Character AI staff could potentially read your conversations if they choose to. This is an important point to keep in mind while you are interacting with their chatbots. Users should be mindful that there is always a possibility of their chats being monitored.

As far as content moderation goes, Character AI has a stringent set of NSFW filters. No explicit or violent conversations are allowed, and the generated characters are also unable to provide such responses. However, there have been glitches in the past where user chats have been leaked to the public.

Keeping all these things in mind, it’s probably not the best idea to input sensitive information while interacting with Character AI if you are concerned about privacy.

Character AI chats are private in the sense that only you can view the chats you have had with the chatbot, and no other user can view your conversations. Similarly, you cannot view any other user’s chats, even with chatbots you may have generated.

However, there is an option to voluntarily share your chat log if you wish to do so. In the top right corner of your chat, there is an option to either share the character or share the conversation you had.

As mentioned previously, the company has not given a concrete answer as to whether developers can or cannot view your chats, so you can’t know for sure yet if your chats will ever be truly “private.”

Yes, Character AI does remember conversations. This is to enable seamless and continuous communication throughout the course of a conversation.

For example, if you made a reference to something in a prior question, you can then follow it up with a related question and Character AI will remember the context.

The Character AI team has not disclosed any information regarding how much of your data is stored or how long it is stored for.

Saving chats in Character AI is straightforward: in the chat window, there are three dots in the top right corner of the screen.

When you click on it, there is an option to save and start a new chat. Simply click on the button and you’re good to go!

You can see all saved chats in Character AI by following a few simple steps. First, you need to log in to your Character AI account and go to the “Chats” section in the left sidebar.

Here, you can select a character you have previously interacted with. Once you click on the selected character, you can view your previous conversations.

You can also click on the three dots in the top right corner of the chat screen and select “View Saved Chats.” This will open a new window with all your previous conversations.

Users have complained in the past that Character AI has had problems when it comes to saving chats. This is usually a server-side problem, and there is very little that users can do to mitigate this issue. However, there are a few steps you can take as a user to try fixing the issue of Character AI chats not saving.

First off, make sure you clear your browser’s cache. This can do the trick, since a browser cache can get cluttered and buggy over time. You can also try using a different browser to see if it helps. Alternatively, you could try updating your Character AI app if you use the platform on a mobile device. You can also try logging out and back in.

Finally, your best bet is to contact the Character AI team and notify them of the issue. As mentioned earlier, this is most likely a server issue. Developers can be reached at info@character.ai, and you can email them with details of the problem you are facing.

In summary, Character AI is a unique generative AI platform that is not only useful but also entertaining.

However, you must keep in mind that there is the possibility of your conversations being read by a third-party since the chats are saved and there is ambiguity surrounding encryption of data.

To stay safe, it is recommended not to input any sensitive or personal information during your conversations.