Character AI Review: Create & Chat with Unique AI Personalities (2024)

As someone who works from home, I often dream of adventures and experiences beyond the confines of my desk. Recently, I decided to turn one of these daydreams into reality by planning a month-long culinary tour of Europe. But which restaurants and countries should I visit?

To save time, I used one of Character AI's chatbots (the Trip Planner) to plan my trip. In seconds, it told me the best countries and restaurants I should visit on my European trip rather than scouring the Internet for the best spots!

Character AI excels at creating and interacting with diverse characters, providing engaging, personalized experiences. It offers many interactive possibilities, from planning your dream vacation to practicing a new language with native-speaking characters and even getting creative writing assistance. Its user-friendly interface and customizable features make it ideal for various needs, from creative projects to practical tasks!

Most of the other Character AI reviews I've encountered only cover the old Character AI version. In this Character AI review, I'll discuss the new version, who it's best for, and its key features. Then, I'll show you how I planned a month-long Europe trip with the Character AI Trip Planner and created my own custom Albert Einstein AI character!

I'll finish the article with my top three Character AI alternatives. The goal is that by the end, you'll know if Character AI is right for you! Let's take a look.

Verdict

Character AI excels at creating and interacting with real and fictional characters. These AI characters provide engaging and personalized experiences for creative and educational purposes. Its user-friendly interface and customizable features make it ideal for writers, educators, and anyone seeking interactive entertainment.

What is Character AI?

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

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.

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

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”)

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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)

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

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.

Top 3 Character AI Alternatives

While Character AI offers a unique and robust platform for interactive character experiences, some alternatives may better suit your needs. Here are the best Character AI alternatives.

Replika

The first Character AI alternative I'd recommend is Replika. You can create a 3D character with whom you can interact to receive support, empathy, and comfort. Replika is excellent for anyone seeking a personal, emotional connection.

Character AI is similar to Replika in that you can enjoy interacting with personalized AI characters. However, it's less personalized since it's confined to a chatbot environment.

Character AI also offers various interactions with real and fictional characters. It's perfect for anyone seeking creative brainstorming, language skills practice, or exploring diverse personalities.

If you’re looking for a constant, caring AI friend who can provide emotional support and companionship, Replika is the way to go. Character AI is better if you like engaging with various characters and want a platform for creative expression or practical help.

Visit Replika →

ChatGPT

Developed by OpenAI with over 180.5 million monthly users, ChatGPT is another Character AI alternative. It's a leading large language model known for its advanced natural language processing abilities. It excels at generating human-like text for various applications, such as casual conversations, content creation, and coding assistance.

Unlike Character AI, which specializes in simulating interactions with unique characters, ChatGPT excels in general AI communication. While it can mimic character styles and behaviors to some extent based on prompts, that's not where its strengths lie. ChatGPT's main advantages are creating various text formats, translating languages, and offering precise, flexible responses.

If you're looking for a versatile AI tool for text generation and broad conversational tasks, ChatGPT is an excellent choice. However, if you’re interested in interacting with various characters for creative or practical purposes, Character AI offers a more tailored experience!

Visit ChatGPT →

Algomo

My final Character AI recommendation is Algomo. Algomo and Character AI use AI chatbots to serve distinct purposes and cater to different user needs.

On the one hand, Algomo enhances customer service for online businesses with AI-driven solutions. It offers an automated resolution for repetitive queries and a co-pilot mode for team efficiency. It’s excellent for companies looking to streamline their customer support and integrate AI into their service operations seamlessly.

Meanwhile, Character AI provides a platform for engaging with real and fictional characters, offering natural-sounding conversations and customizable character creation. It’s great for writers, educators, and those who want entertainment with engaging personalities.

If you're a business owner interested in using AI to optimize your customer support, Algomo is an excellent choice. Meanwhile, Character AI offers a fun and personalized way to create and interact with diverse AI characters for creative and educational use.

Visit Algomo →

Character AI Review: The Right Tool for You?

Character AI has proven to be a remarkably engaging and versatile tool for interacting with real and fictional characters. I loved how authentic and natural the conversations were and found myself genuinely laughing out loud at some of the responses I was receiving.

Creating a custom character, like the one I made of Albert Einstein, was straightforward and fun. I also loved that I could create a custom character's voice, which opened up exciting possibilities for a more personalized interaction. The interface was also incredibly user-friendly for anyone to use this tool.

Character AI may not be the right tool for you, and that's okay. Here are the best Character AI alternatives I've found for different use cases:

• Replika offers a more emotionally supportive experience, which might be ideal if you're looking for a constant companion. Meanwhile, Character AI provides a broader range of interactive characters for various creative and educational uses.
• ChatGPT excels in general text generation and flexible responses but doesn’t specialize in character interactions. For those interested in engaging with unique characters, Character AI delivers a more tailored experience.
• Algomo is a solid choice for businesses looking to optimize customer support with AI. Character AI remains a solid option for creative and interactive character experiences.

Character AI is a fantastic tool for anyone exploring conversations with unique characters, whether for creative inspiration, education, or simply for fun. Its blend of customization and interactive features makes it an excellent choice for AI-powered character interactions!

Thanks for reading my Character AI review! I hope you found it helpful. What characters will you be creating with it?

Visit Character AI →

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Character AI a trustworthy site?

Character AI is a trustworthy site with dependable chatbots. Your chats are confidential from the creators, although the platform retains data for improvements. Be cautious about your conversations for privacy and designate chats as public or private for extra protection.

Is Character AI safe for 12 year olds?

Character AI has filters for NSFW content, which helps keep it safe for most users. Still, it's a good idea to have parental guidance. Even with these filters in place, conversations may go in unexpected directions.

Does Character AI spy on you?

Character AI is open about how it collects data. It cares about user privacy and does not spy on users. Still, checking the terms of service and privacy policy for any online platform is a good idea.

What are the downsides of Character AI?

Character AI is excellent for entertainment and practical use. Still, I experienced two main drawbacks: The bots may repeat the same responses when you chat for a long time, and the conversations can be slow sometimes.

Can Character AI be real people?

Character AI chatbots can be based on real people and may feel human-like. However, they are just artificial intelligence. They are not actual people. Their replies come from the large amount of data they have learned from.

How are AI characters made?

AI characters are created using machine learning. They are trained on large sets of text and code. Because of this training, they learn language patterns, which helps them give responses that sound like humans.

How do you switch to the old Character AI?

You can switch to the old Character AI by going to old.character.ai.