Character AI says it is bringing to life the science-fiction dream of open-ended conversations and collaborations with computers. Their dialogue agents are powered by their own proprietary technology based on large language models (so not ChatGPT), built and trained from the ground up with conversation in mind.
Needless to say, a hallucinating supercomputer is not a source of reliable information. Still, they hope that you find Character AI a useful tool for imagination, brainstorming, language learning, and a host of other purposes they have themselves not yet imagined.
For creation of your own character, they support two different creator experiences. Their Quick mode allows creators to create interesting Characters in less than a minute. Their Advanced mode allows adventurous creators to perfect their Character by using more powerful tools. Note that character creators do not see any of your conversation with their characters.
The apps for iOS and Android (and website) is essentially free and fully featured. It does not look like the paid service is actually exempting you from the ad-driven service, though.
What drew me to reading more about this service was it was featured in Google’s Play Store Editors’ Choice for 2023, and has an average rating of 4.6 stars from 425,000 reviews. So, clearly there are many who enjoy using it. You can actually test it a bit on their website without registering.