The past few months we have seen many AI chat products focused on interactive conversation. These conversations can be focused on role-play, social chats, storytelling, learning, or companionship.
In August, Andreessen Horowitz released their 5th edition of “The Top 100 [Gen AI] Consumer Apps.” The top few spots were expected with: 1. ChatGPT, 2. Gemini, 3 DeepSeek, and 4. Grok. Number 5 was quite surprising, Character.AI. Character AI is an AI-chatbot platform built using large language models (LLMs) designed specifically for interactive, character-based conversation. Founded in 2021, by 2 ex-Gogglers, Character AI has hit over 20M monthly active users averaging around 2 hours per day, with over 180M people visiting the site in August.
Looking back at the list from a16z, 9 of the Top 50 Gen AI products are character / role-play chat bots. Seven of them are NSFW / romantic / companion focused: Crushon AI, Candy.AI, JuicyChat, JOI, SpicyChat.AI, ourdream.ai and Monica. Two of them JanitorAI and Character.AI are fantasy or general roleplay focused. This was surprising to see, but it brought to mind a recent post from Sam Altman on X (below). He made comments about expanding access to “erotica for verified adults” as part of OpenAI’s new age-gating rollout in December which sparked plenty of debate. At first, I questioned the move—it felt unnecessary. But in hindsight, it’s clear that role-play chatbots are gaining massive traction, and this trend is only going to accelerate. Altman won’t miss out, even if it brings its own set of ethical and societal risks.
Millions of people turn to ChatGPT for therapy-like conversations or emotional support, which makes adding an erotic dimension especially concerning. Blurring the line between a therapeutic AI and one designed for provocative interaction risks creating confusion, emotional dependency, and even manipulation. Replika AI, a competitor to Character AI, faced this exact dilemma: many users developed deep emotional attachments to their Replikas, viewing them as romantic partners. When Replika introduced erotic role-playing and later restricted it, users reported feelings of loss and betrayal. This episode illustrates how integrating erotic content into LLMs can lead to significant emotional and ethical challenges. Any move in this direction should therefore be approached with major caution.
In this demo I go into Character AI and learn more about what makes it the 5th most used Gen AI web product. It makes sense, I enjoyed having conversations with Obama, practicing Spanish, and even creating my own fake Jason. Chat with Jason here, you can talk via chat or by “calling” in.
Enjoy the demo!
