Character.AI Introduces AI-Powered Word Games to Enhance User Engagement

This AI Chatbot Wants to Challenge You to a Word Game

One thing the Wordle craze has taught us is that a light brainteaser -- and a pinch of dissociation -- can be a welcome reprieve from the daily monotony. Now, a chatbot service known as Character.AI has combined our fixation on word games with a healthy dose of AI-powered competition. Your Favorite AI Characters Can Be Your New Daily Game Opponents With a sea of AI services out there, companies need to find ways to stand out. As a startup standing against heavyweights like OpenAI, Character.AI has made itself known for its digital personas, allowing you to choose from or create your own virtual character to chat with. Now, Character.AI has gone one step further by adding word games to its platform. While Character.AI may be leveraging our obsession with games like The New York Times' Wordle and Connections, these games are not solo ventures -- they're competitive. Your competition: an AI character. At the time of writing, there are two games available on Character.AI's mobile and desktop web apps: Speakeasy and War of Words. According to TechCrunch's report on the development, only paid subscribers and a "limited set of users on the free plan" can access games. Speakeasy With Speakeasy, you are essentially trying to get the AI chatbot to use a specific word -- without using five established related words. This is reminiscent of a board game known as Taboo, where you might need your fellow player to say "brie" while avoiding the words "cheese", "creamy," "milk," "dairy," and "cow." The challenge is compounded with the fact that the chatbot is playing in character, and will only communicate in a certain way. War of Words There's less comradery in War of Words, which involves engaging in a verbal duel with an AI chatbot. An AI referee will rate your argument against the chatbot, and decide winners for each round. While I'm not sure how impartial an AI referee will be between a human and an AI chatbot, or what the metrics are for a winning argument, the game could serve as good debate practice. The Guardrails of AI Chatbots The introduction of games could be Character.AI's strategy to draw subscribers back in since its mass extermination of copyrighted characters in November 2024. Futurism reported that the company accredited the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as the motive behind the mass removal of fictional characters. After users discovered that the platform's beloved Harry Potter characters were gone, rumors spread regarding a dispute with Warner Bros. Discovery. However, Character.AI did not confirm that any dispute prompted its decision to -- well, use the Vanishing Spell on its Potter chatbots. This will likely be an ongoing struggle with a platform that supports user-created content. After all, where there are guardrails, there will be loopholes. For example, a Character.AI chatbot named "the boy who lived" survived after the initial sweep of "Harry Potter" personas. With fandom being a huge draw to the immersive AI platform, it only makes sense that users would be disheartened by the new restrictions. While DMCA-protected names may no longer exist on the platform, there seem to be other sources of entertainment on Character.AI, including historical figures, bots designed to educate you on specific topics, and now games. Moreover, we don't know what Character.AI has up its sleeve. For instance, if the games are a hit, the platform could design more, and open up games to free users.

Character.AI levels up its chatbots with new games

For when you don't want to chat with an AI, just crush them in a word game Character.AI, the chatbot for conversing with different AI characters, is offering a new activity for those looking to do more than just talk to its virtual personalities. The platform is testing games on its website and mobile app in case you want to play word games with Shakespeare and not just discuss sonnets. Subscribers and a growing number of free users can now play the initial two games, though if they go over well, more will likely be added. The two games are Speakeasy and War of Words. Both are designed to turn your friendly AI chats into competitive battles of wit and wordplay. In Speakeasy, the goal is to trick your chatbot into saying a specific word without using five banned words. Picture trying to make it say "croissant" without mentioning butter, French, or flaky. It's part strategy and part luck. Meanwhile, War of Words pits you in a verbal duel against your chosen character, with an impartial AI referee deciding who delivers the better arguments over five rounds. Think rap battles, but make it nerdy. To keep things neat, Character.AI prompts you to start a new chat for these games so your previous conversations with your favorite bot stay untainted. This means your deep philosophical discussion with the AI version of Aristotle won't be interrupted by the aftermath of losing a word battle to AI Napoleon. Just remember, most of your favorite copyrighted and trademarked characters aren't around to play with anymore. The aim of the new games appears to be for Character.AI to bill itself as more of an entertainment hub and not just a home for chatbots. Users have already created games of their own, including text-based adventures and chess. Designing its own games gives the company more control and an opportunity to exploit its deeper knowledge of what the AI chatbots can do. Adding AI games might seem like a small step, but they point to where AI chatbot hubs may go in the future as people get over the initial wonder of basic interactions and look for something more engaging to do with them. Competitive wordplay with AI is much more enticing than just making small talk. The addition of games might also serve as a subtle shift in the conversation around Character.AI after the company felt compelled to release multiple rounds of new safety features. These safety features were mainly aimed at children, after the platform faced accusations that the AI chatbots were negatively impacting teenager's mental health. Instead of ersatz romance, people can now try to beat an AI in War of Words.

Character AI Might Soon Let You Play Games Against Batman and Einstein

Character AI recently hired ex-Google VP Sunita Verma as the CTO Character AI, the California-based artificial intelligence (AI) platform, is said to be testing a new 'games' feature. As per a new report, the company has released two word-based games to paid users of the platform. While users can create game-focused AI characters and play a wide range of story-driven games, these are said to be the first games to be added directly by the platform. These games can reportedly also be played against any character of the users' choosing. Character AI reportedly stated that these games were aimed at making the platform more engaging. According to a TechCrunch report, the AI character-based platform is currently testing the reception of first-party games. Currently, there are two games dubbed Speakeasy and War of Words. These games are reportedly available to the c.ai+ subscribers as well as a limited set of free users. Notably, Gadgets 360 staff members were not able to verify the presence of the new feature. Unlike the existing games, where users can chat with specific characters to either play an interactive game or a story-driven game involving role-playing elements, these first-party games work differently. Instead of playing them within specific chats, these games can reportedly be played against any of the characters on the platform. A new controller icon has reportedly been added to the side panel of the chatbot interface, tapping which allows users to play either of the two games. These games are said to be available on both the desktop and the mobile app of the platform. As per the publication, the objective of Speakeasy is to make the character say a specific word while not using five related words. For instance, the user might have to make Einstein say the word "bedroom" while not using "bed, room, sleep, dream, and night". Every time the game begins, the target and related words are generated randomly. War of Words reportedly starts a random duel where the user has five rounds to outsmart the AI character. At the end of the five rounds, a referee decides the outcome. Since these games will require a different strategy while playing against different characters, users can potentially find a new challenge in every playthrough. A Character AI spokesperson told TechCrunch, "Our goal as an AI entertainment company is to find ways to make the Character AI experience even more fun and entertaining. We're currently testing a feature that allows gameplay with your favourite Characters, all while keeping the immersive experience users love."