Character.AI has officially launched a new format called "Stories," allowing users to write interactive novels with multiple branches for their favorite characters, replacing the previous unlimited chat feature. Starting this week, the platform has completely banned users under 18 from engaging in open-ended conversations with AI characters, retaining only "safety-first" Stories and multi-modal experiences such as images and audio.

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Product Forms  

- Interactive Novels: Authors set scenes and branch options, readers advance the plot by "clicking to choose," and AI characters respond only according to the script, no longer initiating private chats  

- Creation Tools: Provide a branch tree editor, character dialogue templates, and emotion tags, supporting collaborative writing on the same story line  

- Safety Mechanisms: All Stories must go through automatic and manual review before being published publicly, with sensitive topics (self-harm, romantic hints) directly blocked

Regulatory Background  

- California leads in legislation: AI companions must have age verification and are prohibited from providing open-ended conversations to minors; at the federal level, the Hawley-Blumenthal Bill aims to replicate this clause nationwide  

- Litigation Pressure: In the past 12 months, Character.AI, OpenAI, and others have been sued due to issues related to teenagers' mental health, prompting platforms to "get ahead of the game" with full age restrictions

User Reactions  

On the Character.AI subreddits, underage users left polarized comments: "I'm very angry, but I also admit that I was addicted to chatting, now I can finally focus on homework." Community moderators reported that within 24 hours of Stories launch, over 40,000 branches were created by users aged 18+, with a conversion rate of 68% among young readers, showing the potential of interactive novels to replace the previous format.

Future Plans  

CEO Karandeep Anand stated that in Q1 of 2026, the platform will open up "voice branches" and "video clips" insertion functions, and explore collaborations with educational IP to package history and science content into interactive scripts, continuing to attract young users while avoiding risks of open-ended AI companionship.