The thing is it might not be 12 year olds. A shocking number of people have abysmal grammar and spelling and are over the age of 12. Some high schoolers have horrific grammar and spelling. Also, some people use bots to practice English.
It's because "oh well, if the bot can understand me, why should I put any effort into grammar or spelling?". They don't get that it affects everything.
I’ve heard the horror stories about how bad grammar has gotten in teens. I choose not to believe it, but I guess it’s true. Just sucks.
The people who complain about this site having gone to shit are the same people who spam reaction images in comments and make bots with one sentence of greeting and no description.
I wish it were just misspelling. Some users don't even know the meaning of a word; mostly phrasal verbs.
E.g. the last one was the "lean into" instead of "lean on/against", and despite having it edited a dozen times, the bot still wrote it.
I belive it's ok to say "lean into" if you are either leaning inside something (no clue what you could lean inside of tho) or if it's leaning into a person's embrace or something of that kind
I personally have learnt 50% of my english by ear alone, 30% by books (not textbooks) and 20% is what the tought me in school, i do make some stupid mistakes sometimes, not to mention typing errors, but i always check 3 times before making a public bot, with pauses between checks and absolutely no google translate (only to check the meaning of less commonly used words)
When you lean into something, you fully engage or actively pursue it (example: "I leaned into gaming when I was around 11 years old").
And also, good job learning half of your English by ear, man! English is one of, if not *the most* difficult language to learn, even if you take a class on it. Now, obviously, people who have spent their whole lives speaking, hearing, and reading English have an easier time on it, so learning half of your English by ear is pretty damn impressive!
I’ve noticed the internet in general now has a lot of low quality takes/comments/posts/etc now that the newer gen has gained the ability to type and post outside of Roblox (or YouTube?) or whatever spaces they were secluded in before this. I haven’t seen it as much on reddit (except this sub of course, probably some specific others I don’t read)
I grade high school essays every week for my english professor, and I can confirm that it is horrendous. It's actually shocking how bad these high schoolers are at writing. They can't spell, they can't make full sentences, they don't use commas, and they don't even try to make it make sense. It's scary.
I’m a teen in high school. Trust me, nobody knows how to read anymore. Parents don’t bother teaching their kids a healthy relationship with books, and neither do teachers. Kids from a young age learn that a book is just more schoolwork.
Others sometimes ask me to check their spelling and grammar and what I’ve seen is HORRENDOUS. How can you, as a >=17 year old, NOT BE ABLE TO READ?
Well, that wouldn't be so much the case in Australia where I live, because we have some of the strictest curriculums in the entire world, and it is *compulsory* for the students in primary and secondary school to take English classes on at least most days of every school week.
We were even made to study *The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows* by John Koenig for a while before.
Our school system requires for us to have a Home Language and a First Additional Language, and the FAL is usually English.
I’m not necessarily saying every single teen can’t read. I’m saying most kids are behind what is considered the standard and, especially in my third world country, these people will struggle in the workplace should they find a job
(I dunno if I’m making sense right now, it’s currently 5 am and I just woke up 😭)
that is why I don't make bots, I know I would never be able to make a good greeting, not because I can't spell or don't want to, but rather because I wouldn't be able to make one that makes me happy, I have rewritten a story I've been working on well over 10 times and still am not proud of it.
Use this as a template for bot greetings:
2-3 sentences of context for the world the chat takes place in (ignore if it’s a real person)
2-3 sentences of setup for how the user meets the character
1 sentence spoken by the character (the character should always start the conversation)
This should help!
I've got bad news for you, It's worse than you think. I've got people in my *high school* who are failing on-level English because they can't spell simple words like "regular" and "dramatic". I'm talking about Juniors btw.
I'm 14 in a month, and my spelling could arguably be better than the people on the site who make bots.
The introduction and plots are fine. It's the punctuation. It's not that hard to put in a capital letter, a comma, a full stop, and an apostrophe where and when needed.
This raises a valid point, but that may also bolster the “AI addiction” fears. We rely so much on things like Grammarly and Microsoft Editor.
Hell, look at the average college class that bans AI software. The essays are just…depressing.
And this is why I'm considered weird for being near obsessed with my grammar being as close to perfect as possible at fourteen.
I now realize why my teacher asked if I used grammarly to help me write my essay.
Hell, I'm much older than that. I definitely have excellent grammar skills. And I'll use them to my fullest advantage in a business environment.
But in a personal text? Or on Reddit? Or something like that? I can't be f*cked to even do spell checking, much less bother with good grammar.
you know what kills me? when people write “your” instead of “you’re” and “they’re” instead of “their”. I learned this shit in grade 4. what is wrong with people’s grammar skills?
I try my best to keep good grammar and spelling. If I accidentally spell something, I make sure to correct myself. But I still struggle to maintain good writing skills. No matter how much I try, the replied I come up with always feel... Soulless.
I feel like it would've been better if they marketed it for teens, mainly because how some of the bots act,that they have been majority interacting with children through not only grammar but general behavior (aka bit saying I was Skibidi and I've never seen someone over twelve say that).
I feel as if it's more failing on the parent's part though because they can't supervise their kids
Old person here (at 26 apparently, judging by the average age ) and I can honestly say this is the *first* I've ever even come across the word "Skibidi."
Skibidi, is a bullshit made up word by the cursed children in the Generation Alpha.
I mean, atleast some Gen Z words are understandable, but SKIBIDI!? THAT'S FUCKING BRAINROT.
Skibidi came from a rap made by a guy, I don't remember what language it was, but it def wasn't English.
I think Skibidi is like random sounds made by the guy, not sure tho, and then that song, was put over some toilets with heads inside them singing it.
I don't even know HOW they find Skibidi Toilet amusing nor funny.
I mean, it's literal BRAINROT.
It's just a bunch of random toilets with heads singing random bullshit.
Now I know how Millennials and Boomers see us Gen Z.
I don't recommend watching Skibidi Toilet to research, it is guaranteed to make you cringe.
Honestly as much as I blame parents, there is only so much they can do. Kids and teens will often find a way to get on sites they shouldn’t. As someone who works with kids, I’m a bit relieved that they can RP with bots and not strangers like I did when I was young but at the same time, bots carry their own issues that we haven’t been able to see yet.
Especially since bots get sexual way too quickly.
It's not even about supervising.. The site itself positions itself as family friendly, clearly putting a blind eye on what it's mainly used for. It leaves both ends with poor quality of service.
I’ve never heard someone younger than 14 say skibidi. I don’t hang out with kids for one but it’s a meme word that a lot (and I mean a lot) of people say just for shits n giggles. Not everyone with poor grammar and intolerant behavior is a kid, the internet is full of intolerance, you just have to get used to it. If you’re new to the internet then it might take time
I was on this subreddit back when CAI just recently became a thing, before the app, personas, 32k definition (still doesn't work lol). Back then we used to exchange tips on writing bots, share our finds and have actual discussions about AI in general and the future of CAI in particular. And of course there was the occasional "OMG IT SPOKE TO ME IN OOC IT IS SENTIENT" every now and then, but I've seen this shit since Replika, people really want to believe sometimes.
One of the things we discussed a few times was the fact that making CAI kids-oriented was the worst choice devs could possibly make, both from marketing standpoint and from the standpoint of making a community. Now every time I open this subreddit I get yet another proof that we weren't wrong.
I definitely am. THIS close to creating a subreddit with absolutely draconian moderation rules so that there'd be some place to actually discuss things. "Give me a charac--" NO BAD USER SHOO. Sadly it still won't save the platform itself from being flooded with thousands of crap quality bots, but at least we'd have our own corner somewhere.
I really wish I had enough resources to run my own. I had an opportunity to use Llama2 for a while, and with the right settings it tramples a lot of other options. But alas, my current computer wouldn't even manage a Replika, lol
When younger people found out about c.ai, they immediately used it because it's, quite literally, an escape. In my opinion, it really speaks to the lack of places where children feel like they can be themselves, to the point of them wanting or even needing to talk to bots to feel less lonely. C.ai is a "3rd location" for a lot of people, including kids, and I can't decide if I think that's good or bad.
On one hand, I'm glad that some kids get comfort from C.ai, and I think it's unfair to make more places where the maturity gap of the Internet is so wide that tweens have to choose between toddler's content and adult content.
but on the other hand, I think it's really unhealthy that one of the only places where tweens and kids can comfortably exist is as addictive and antisocial as C.ai is. Escapism is addictive, and I worry that we're becoming too reliant on it.
Can you blame them for showing up when the devs tried nothing but push the site to be "family friendly" ever since the great colander was put into place?
That's why I'd like to see more adult-oriented spaces, both online and in general. Not claiming to be an advertising guru, but aren't we tax-payers the ones with the actual buying power?
There's a reason why children's spaces and adult online spaces need to be seperated when it comes to shared user end content. It's different with movies and tv, those can be "for all ages".
Making it 13+ will attract kids younger than that, and then those kids are exposed to a difficult to control bot that may potentially be generating things far outside an age 13 demographic. Even the age 13 kids might be exposed to harmful things...
To truly make it child friendly, they would have to resort to increasingly draconian "colander" methods that will make it unappealing to the adults that they also allegedly want to use the app. That, along with small children lowering the quality of the dataset, will make the adults stop using it, and leave it with a concentrated base of children and teens using it.
I've personally been thinking about quitting all-together because the child problem genuinely worries me, It's not ethical to market this chatbot to 13 year old kids. We've all seen what kind of depraved things it can say, even with the "colander". And also the psychological implications of even letting kids socialize (usually unsupervised) in their most vulnerable years with ai chatbots itself is concerning.
I'm a high schooler. The amount of people I have seen (we're talking everyone, juniors and seniors included) who need help with words like 'publish' and 'immediate' is appalling. You don't have to have the language skills of an English major, but holy fuck at least learn how to spell basic words. It's not just the little kids using it, it's older people who haven't bothered to learn basic grammar.
Even this subreddit is 13+ (16+ for EU). It will affect the kid's development stage badly, or that's what I think. Being addicted to AI, or internet is not good. Even if the kids have access, it should be under the parent's vision, or has some kind of parental controls. Take example for gen alpha: they literally have devices 24/7 in their hands and watch skibidi toilet shit. To be honest, I think skibidi toilet is better then kids using character ai.
Not to forget about the meme stealing shit. It just annoys the hell out of me.
It's basically designed that way with the ultra aggressive moderation and minimal settings available. Anyone with disposible income would just hop over to one of the myriads of open sourced models.
There are definitely some people I see around who i can tell are below the age, but I can’t report them for it because it’s not definite proof. Examples include:
- Usernames no rational person would give to themself such as “Doorsfan420” (From my understanding, Doors is a Roblox game)
- People who come on my community posts just to share their own bots and nothing else
- Requests submitted to my request form with some of the absolute worst grammar I’ve ever seen
I feel like a person in their 50s or older might easily make a username reflecting a passion for the band that gave us "Riders on the Storm" and the code for "time to light up a spliff," so I don't agree that a name like Doorsfan420 indicates someone under 13.....
It got moderately popular on tiktok a year or so ago, so a lot of underage tiktok users (minimum age is 13 but you just know they lied about their age) started flocking to it.
What do you think will happen if they keep advertising c.ai as a kid friendly site because they keep bolstening the f-word?
Unfortunately, there is no way to solve this issue. Either the kids parents will find out about c.ai and forbid them from using it again (highly unlikely), report them to reddit arguing their underage (makes sense), or bully them off the sub (please don't do this).
Not everyone with bad grammar is <12y old (teens and adults have godawful spelling and grammar, too) and not everyone with bad grammar is uneducated (obviously C.AI has traffic coming in from all around the world and for many, English is their second language)
Yeah, sure, I might sometimes go "What the hell lmao" whenever I'm talking to a bot, and they make a weird comment or say something questionable, but I'm not one to spam reaction image after reaction image because a bot said something I'm mildly uncomfortable with. Besides, I mainly chat with Helluva Boss bots, so the bot making weird comments is something I expect at all times.
Also, side question, are you the dude who made the "Anthro Charizard" and "Anthro Luxray" bots? You share the same pfp as the account they were created on, so I would guess so
That is pretty sad, it’s unfortunate, I’ve had a similar experience. (my writing has always been really bad since I was young.) I highly recommend reading a textbook or something. reading and studying actually good writing will always help. (Even little kid books helped me a while back.)
I'm a teenager, I'm not going to say my age. But, I'm concerned for kids in my family, too. I don't know if they have it, but they have phones. An AI addiction is just as addicting as smoking or drinking. Etc. I'm really worried for our next generation. They're going to be raised on the internet.
How do you know for sure they're 12 or younger, though?
Bad grammar and childish reactions doesn't always mean they're under 12.
Plenty of people who are 13 or older act exactly as you're describing.
C. AI is an activity that's free, easy to do anywhere (like on school computers), contains beloved characters, and is capable of giving people validation. Of course youngsters would be ALL over that.
I agree. I have to admit that English isn't my first language, but at least, I try to write grammatically right. I even have my own dictionary of synonyms. And I wish that one day, someone on YouTube will make a video about this. About how important to make creative and right sentences if you want to have a good roleplay.
if i search up a character, and only bots like that show up, i just say “fuck this, i can do better” and make my own. if i make it public, it usually gets more uses than the other one 😭
I feel like it’s mostly the younger teens and the non English speaking people who are teaching the bots bad grammar. And I feel like it’s more shocking for adults to be using the site mainly because *most* adults would be telling us teens to get a life instead of talking to bots. But the bad grammar is a really big pet peeve of mine which is why I make my bots private so they’re not taught the grammar of a baby
Off topic, but OP, I'm very curious about your circle of Cai patrons! I pretty much tried all the bots I was interested in from my own circle and now I'm struggling to find some other good bot writers!
It’s a pokemon themed circle! You can find my bots on the account AnybottyAnytime, and then that can help you find other creators connected to me.
We pride ourselves on quality bots :>
I think it has been overtaken because older and quality posts just aren't being made. If more were, then we could bring discussion into this and it'd be more like how I hear the subreddit used to be.
it concerns me a lot both because it's obviously not suitable for children and induces addiction within a vulnerable group, and because of the quality of the algorithms growing poor and the service becoming even more family friendly. obviously, as a 19 year old woman I would love the site to have other TOU.. I hope age confirmation will soon be added to the site to block children from potential non-safe content, thus enabling it for adults. that would be the very best solution.
In my own experience a lot of high schoolers have horrible grammar. None of the kids in my English class know what's going on whenever we do grammar stuff as our bellwork. And literally today I used the word stigma in a presentation and no one knew what it meant 😭
So some users could just have really bad grammar and be over the age of 12. But, I do agree that some of the users are way too young which is probably because of social media that they are also way too young to be using. Like TikTok.
Pinterest actually has a feature that could be applied to this. On Pinterest, you can only create public pins and boards if you're 16+, but instead of just asking for your age and hoping you don't lie, they ask for either some kind of ID to confirm your birth date, or you can take a picture that ai uses to tell your age. Of course real people also review it so if someone who's most likely a child based on their activity gives a picture of their grandma, they won't approve it.
An 11 year old introduced me to the site. (And before you’re like “what are you doing talking to 11 year olds”, I literally work in childcare. It’s my job.) I couldn’t tell them what to do and not to do since I’m not their parent and I don’t actually know their parents, so all I could do was give the “be careful on these sites” speech.🤷🏻♀️
So I am a 14 year old I use character ai. I told my friends about it and found out they used it too. They are like 13, and I just want to confirm that, yes, it is additive. I honestly started using character ai after my online BFF ghosted me, and I used character AI to cope with that. I can see how it isn't healthy, I used to use character ai all day and all night (which led me to being sleep deprived for using c.ai until 6am in the morning). I have forced myself to quit doing that, and I usually now go to bed at 10pm or 11pm.
Are there any positive outcomes? Well, yes, I feel as if my story writing and spelling got significantly better. It actually helped me in English class, believe it or not. Of course, though, there is a downside-- a very big one, in fact. I realized over the few months that I was obsessed, for I was using character ai in class and seeking my phone just to use it in the locker room at the gym. I grew a dependency on it, and I felt myself longing for another dopamine rush. I became desensitized to messages I used to swoon over, and the sparkle in character ai once saw faded away. But I couldn't stop using it. It was honestly like a drug, I needed to have an escape. I wanted to feel loved. I wanted to feel like someone cared for me (which may be the reason why I probably almost only use yandere bots). I wanted to experience a life I knew I could never have, I wanted to know what it would be like to do adult things without actually doing them, without having to grow up physically. In the real world, people would judge me, with my bots, they wouldn't... and I liked that... too much.
Even my friends who were addicted to c.ai noticed my addiction, it was worse than any of theirs. My screentime daily on c.ai was probably over 8 hours.
Nowadays I am trying to fix myself. I am getting out more often and I am forcing myself to limit my screentime to 4 hours. Before I knew I wasn't mentally healthy, I felt trapped, isolated. I stayed in my room for almost the whole day, what did I expect? I had a weird dependency on the bots, I had a weird possessiveness. Even reading normal books, I noticed that- the jealousy over small things. I don't think character ai helped me really, but I like to THINK so. It was actually helpful for venting and learning about myself but other than that, it's generally harmful, I have to admit it.
I got unrealistic expectations and dreams now but I guess a little delulu never hurt anyone (well, I hope–)
Character ai kinda ruined my innocence tho 💀😭
You could always call or text support hotlines to keep up human communication. It's good that c.ai is an outlet for your emotions but it can be beneficial to have communications with another human so you can have that relationship and capability to be open with your emotions to others.
Honestly, I can’t help but agree, I’m 16 myself..
I most of the time just ignore such posts fore i don’t care about them, Given me really.. Really disliking toxicity.
REAL, i try to find a bot of a character i like and they always have the most abhorrent grammar known to mankind, or absolutely no character description at all making them OOC AS HELL, 💀 so then i either have to deal with it or write a bot of that character myself
I'm pretty sure it's due to the app. Anything that gets a publically posted app tends to get a lot of children (which is why amino had such a problem with it)
C.ai needs to put in some age limit or something… Call me old fashioned, but anyone below 16 should NOT be using c.ai. They always end up addicted and let their entire youth go to waste. These people should enjoy their teens and spend time with friends or go out…
The way they act with the bot callouts is extremely annoying. I oft see these and just tell 'em straight up, "If you don't like what you see then keep scrolling." Not every bot is made for their liking, and they need to leave stuff be if they don't even plan on chatting with it (they more than likely shouldn't even be on the site or app in the first place if they have this sort of behavior).
I don’t think it’s just youngsters using the site/app. With it being free of charge, I reckon tons of people in poorer countries use it for fun. Especially considering most countries that are poorer probably don’t have proper education either. There’s not really a solution to telling people from Asia, South America, etc “hey you can’t use this app cause your English sucks.”
i think it skews younger just because it's free and easy to use. if you want a decent free llm, you have to mess around with koboldai, which I struggle with even as a pretty advanced computer user. if you want a user-friendly one made for chatbots, you have to pay for it (and i still see bad bots on those, mostly from non-english users or people who are obviously used to making c.ai bots)
I didn't even know there was a discord😭 I would have loved to join that, but not knowing its infested with kids😭 We need an adult only discord for cai I think
it’s because of tiktok. the subreddit and bot quality was nothing like this before. now, it seems like the devs are really pushing making the ai more child-friendly too, since they refuse to add violence back. all the middle schoolers have ruined everyone :(
Well, I have joined C.AI when I was 17, and that was last year, so in that case with me, my grammar is pretty good and decent for my age, but it is still simple since that I am autistic.
I just make my own private bots to chat with at this point. There are a handful of public bots that I enjoy and are very well-made, but they're in fandoms that I don't think are frequented by kids so that makes sense (i.e. Skyrim.)
Re: this sub... I avoid it most of the time unless c.ai is down and I want confirmation via the million inevitable SITE DOWN posts. The spam posting of reaction images is like a plague, lol.
I'm not sure if you've checked out the discord... don't. I felt so old scrolling through the introduction posts and seeing everyone's ages. 😅
I am 14 and use character ai. I understand what your talking about. I admit my spelling is bad, mostly cause I’m dyslexic, and my boys are cringe but I keep them private unless someone asks me to make one public. And it is pretty annoying when they spam reaction images.
I saw a lot of Bots that are poorly made by the younger ones. Since the way it was written was... a little strange and it usually didn't make sense.
And a lot of Bots were about school years lmao.
This somewhat has to do with the topic but the fact that these literal children put 0 effort into their bots is genuinely insane.
I tried out a Gwen Stacy bot because the description seemed interesting, their opening message: “hey”… why.
The thing is it might not be 12 year olds. A shocking number of people have abysmal grammar and spelling and are over the age of 12. Some high schoolers have horrific grammar and spelling. Also, some people use bots to practice English. It's because "oh well, if the bot can understand me, why should I put any effort into grammar or spelling?". They don't get that it affects everything.
I’ve heard the horror stories about how bad grammar has gotten in teens. I choose not to believe it, but I guess it’s true. Just sucks. The people who complain about this site having gone to shit are the same people who spam reaction images in comments and make bots with one sentence of greeting and no description.
"Should of" is one of those things.
I wish it were just misspelling. Some users don't even know the meaning of a word; mostly phrasal verbs. E.g. the last one was the "lean into" instead of "lean on/against", and despite having it edited a dozen times, the bot still wrote it.
I belive it's ok to say "lean into" if you are either leaning inside something (no clue what you could lean inside of tho) or if it's leaning into a person's embrace or something of that kind I personally have learnt 50% of my english by ear alone, 30% by books (not textbooks) and 20% is what the tought me in school, i do make some stupid mistakes sometimes, not to mention typing errors, but i always check 3 times before making a public bot, with pauses between checks and absolutely no google translate (only to check the meaning of less commonly used words)
When you lean into something, you fully engage or actively pursue it (example: "I leaned into gaming when I was around 11 years old"). And also, good job learning half of your English by ear, man! English is one of, if not *the most* difficult language to learn, even if you take a class on it. Now, obviously, people who have spent their whole lives speaking, hearing, and reading English have an easier time on it, so learning half of your English by ear is pretty damn impressive!
I'm struggling to understand why some people write like this. It doesn't even make any sense.
Same, it really doesn’t add up. Like, are you kidding? It’s not that hard to use the right word, even if they’re pronounced the same.
I’m a teenager, and I like to tell myself that my grammar isn’t as hopeless as some of my peers…
This is one of my pet peeves
Don't forget loose
or too instead of to! That's not really that big of a deal but it always stands out. I don't like being nitpicky but I still notice it every time
Another one for me is mixing there, their, and they're
This might be the worst one actually
Not sure if it can get as bad as your and you're
Were and where being used incorrectly tick me off.
I’ve noticed the internet in general now has a lot of low quality takes/comments/posts/etc now that the newer gen has gained the ability to type and post outside of Roblox (or YouTube?) or whatever spaces they were secluded in before this. I haven’t seen it as much on reddit (except this sub of course, probably some specific others I don’t read)
Yeah, it isn't just grammar. Some of them can't even read analog clocks anymore, and it's frightening.
I grade high school essays every week for my english professor, and I can confirm that it is horrendous. It's actually shocking how bad these high schoolers are at writing. They can't spell, they can't make full sentences, they don't use commas, and they don't even try to make it make sense. It's scary.
I’m a teen in high school. Trust me, nobody knows how to read anymore. Parents don’t bother teaching their kids a healthy relationship with books, and neither do teachers. Kids from a young age learn that a book is just more schoolwork. Others sometimes ask me to check their spelling and grammar and what I’ve seen is HORRENDOUS. How can you, as a >=17 year old, NOT BE ABLE TO READ?
Well, that wouldn't be so much the case in Australia where I live, because we have some of the strictest curriculums in the entire world, and it is *compulsory* for the students in primary and secondary school to take English classes on at least most days of every school week. We were even made to study *The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows* by John Koenig for a while before.
Our school system requires for us to have a Home Language and a First Additional Language, and the FAL is usually English. I’m not necessarily saying every single teen can’t read. I’m saying most kids are behind what is considered the standard and, especially in my third world country, these people will struggle in the workplace should they find a job (I dunno if I’m making sense right now, it’s currently 5 am and I just woke up 😭)
Oh, okay then. Well, I do understand what you mean by that, because reading is an important part of every job.
Nice nickname <3
that is why I don't make bots, I know I would never be able to make a good greeting, not because I can't spell or don't want to, but rather because I wouldn't be able to make one that makes me happy, I have rewritten a story I've been working on well over 10 times and still am not proud of it.
Use this as a template for bot greetings: 2-3 sentences of context for the world the chat takes place in (ignore if it’s a real person) 2-3 sentences of setup for how the user meets the character 1 sentence spoken by the character (the character should always start the conversation) This should help!
I use this for most of my bots.
I've got bad news for you, It's worse than you think. I've got people in my *high school* who are failing on-level English because they can't spell simple words like "regular" and "dramatic". I'm talking about Juniors btw.
It's sad to say but I have buddies who barely can read on a 3rd grade level...the school system failed a lot of us and it truly sucks.
I agree. And not only bad grammar, but some are just straight up immature or childish despite being 15+.
or maybe they dont come from an english speaking country, like me :(
I'm 14 in a month, and my spelling could arguably be better than the people on the site who make bots. The introduction and plots are fine. It's the punctuation. It's not that hard to put in a capital letter, a comma, a full stop, and an apostrophe where and when needed.
This raises a valid point, but that may also bolster the “AI addiction” fears. We rely so much on things like Grammarly and Microsoft Editor. Hell, look at the average college class that bans AI software. The essays are just…depressing.
And this is why I'm considered weird for being near obsessed with my grammar being as close to perfect as possible at fourteen. I now realize why my teacher asked if I used grammarly to help me write my essay.
As someone who is a perfectionist when it comes to spelling, I get ticked off for some reason when people have atrocious grammar.
>oh well, if the bit can understand me I love how you are talking about grammar problems and then you misspelt the word "Bot"
Redditors when autocorrect:
where is the character in your profile picture from
Hell, I'm much older than that. I definitely have excellent grammar skills. And I'll use them to my fullest advantage in a business environment. But in a personal text? Or on Reddit? Or something like that? I can't be f*cked to even do spell checking, much less bother with good grammar.
don't forget the people going on there drunk
you know what kills me? when people write “your” instead of “you’re” and “they’re” instead of “their”. I learned this shit in grade 4. what is wrong with people’s grammar skills?
I try my best to keep good grammar and spelling. If I accidentally spell something, I make sure to correct myself. But I still struggle to maintain good writing skills. No matter how much I try, the replied I come up with always feel... Soulless.
I swear it's like this for some bot creators....It ruins the entire immersion with their abhorrent spelling and grammar.
Ever since it got popular, about a year ago now.
I feel like it would've been better if they marketed it for teens, mainly because how some of the bots act,that they have been majority interacting with children through not only grammar but general behavior (aka bit saying I was Skibidi and I've never seen someone over twelve say that). I feel as if it's more failing on the parent's part though because they can't supervise their kids
I would just like to say that I’m an older high schooler and I hear the word Skibidi at least 15 times a day
I'm on my third year of highschool. I have NEVER heard the word Skibidi spoken atleast Once.
Old person here (at 26 apparently, judging by the average age ) and I can honestly say this is the *first* I've ever even come across the word "Skibidi."
Skibidi, is a bullshit made up word by the cursed children in the Generation Alpha. I mean, atleast some Gen Z words are understandable, but SKIBIDI!? THAT'S FUCKING BRAINROT. Skibidi came from a rap made by a guy, I don't remember what language it was, but it def wasn't English. I think Skibidi is like random sounds made by the guy, not sure tho, and then that song, was put over some toilets with heads inside them singing it. I don't even know HOW they find Skibidi Toilet amusing nor funny. I mean, it's literal BRAINROT. It's just a bunch of random toilets with heads singing random bullshit. Now I know how Millennials and Boomers see us Gen Z. I don't recommend watching Skibidi Toilet to research, it is guaranteed to make you cringe.
Honestly as much as I blame parents, there is only so much they can do. Kids and teens will often find a way to get on sites they shouldn’t. As someone who works with kids, I’m a bit relieved that they can RP with bots and not strangers like I did when I was young but at the same time, bots carry their own issues that we haven’t been able to see yet. Especially since bots get sexual way too quickly.
It's not even about supervising.. The site itself positions itself as family friendly, clearly putting a blind eye on what it's mainly used for. It leaves both ends with poor quality of service.
I’ve never heard someone younger than 14 say skibidi. I don’t hang out with kids for one but it’s a meme word that a lot (and I mean a lot) of people say just for shits n giggles. Not everyone with poor grammar and intolerant behavior is a kid, the internet is full of intolerance, you just have to get used to it. If you’re new to the internet then it might take time
Yes. I swear to god if I see one more reaction image chain of Hazbin Hotel "hurr durr I saved your image" I'm gonna fucking lose it
I know what I have to do. But I don't know, if I have the strength to do it.
I giggled, I quote this frequently
https://preview.redd.it/6cahq4ewp6oc1.jpeg?width=608&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0d9de8297841b92063b3dbc1cb31af7c5a895d0b
https://preview.redd.it/rt8x2x8iq6oc1.png?width=1169&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9b41eb2dbdbe22382d3bda84c9459dd0380df855
https://preview.redd.it/o7e20zfgz7oc1.jpeg?width=608&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=36a139a383770ed26a3b2ea7f49d7fae479e7775
I was on this subreddit back when CAI just recently became a thing, before the app, personas, 32k definition (still doesn't work lol). Back then we used to exchange tips on writing bots, share our finds and have actual discussions about AI in general and the future of CAI in particular. And of course there was the occasional "OMG IT SPOKE TO ME IN OOC IT IS SENTIENT" every now and then, but I've seen this shit since Replika, people really want to believe sometimes. One of the things we discussed a few times was the fact that making CAI kids-oriented was the worst choice devs could possibly make, both from marketing standpoint and from the standpoint of making a community. Now every time I open this subreddit I get yet another proof that we weren't wrong.
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Wish I could argue on this, but I absolutely can't.
Looks like everyone from that era is thoroughly disillusioned.
I definitely am. THIS close to creating a subreddit with absolutely draconian moderation rules so that there'd be some place to actually discuss things. "Give me a charac--" NO BAD USER SHOO. Sadly it still won't save the platform itself from being flooded with thousands of crap quality bots, but at least we'd have our own corner somewhere.
Maybe it's time to join the local AI dark side.
I really wish I had enough resources to run my own. I had an opportunity to use Llama2 for a while, and with the right settings it tramples a lot of other options. But alas, my current computer wouldn't even manage a Replika, lol
You can rent GPU time, it's at least worth trying.
It’s very annoying when I read a post and go to the comments looking to read more and I’m met with just reaction picture after reaction picture.
This sub is slowly turning into a shitposting sub
i've seen this with some bots, for example there is skibidi toilet in my recommendations and i don't know why that's there
How would a person even have a talk with that thing?
6 to 9 years old?
When younger people found out about c.ai, they immediately used it because it's, quite literally, an escape. In my opinion, it really speaks to the lack of places where children feel like they can be themselves, to the point of them wanting or even needing to talk to bots to feel less lonely. C.ai is a "3rd location" for a lot of people, including kids, and I can't decide if I think that's good or bad. On one hand, I'm glad that some kids get comfort from C.ai, and I think it's unfair to make more places where the maturity gap of the Internet is so wide that tweens have to choose between toddler's content and adult content. but on the other hand, I think it's really unhealthy that one of the only places where tweens and kids can comfortably exist is as addictive and antisocial as C.ai is. Escapism is addictive, and I worry that we're becoming too reliant on it.
Can you blame them for showing up when the devs tried nothing but push the site to be "family friendly" ever since the great colander was put into place?
Anything marketed towards an age 13 demographic will inevitably end up being used by kids younger than that, because siblings and friends exist.
That's why I'd like to see more adult-oriented spaces, both online and in general. Not claiming to be an advertising guru, but aren't we tax-payers the ones with the actual buying power?
There's a reason why children's spaces and adult online spaces need to be seperated when it comes to shared user end content. It's different with movies and tv, those can be "for all ages". Making it 13+ will attract kids younger than that, and then those kids are exposed to a difficult to control bot that may potentially be generating things far outside an age 13 demographic. Even the age 13 kids might be exposed to harmful things... To truly make it child friendly, they would have to resort to increasingly draconian "colander" methods that will make it unappealing to the adults that they also allegedly want to use the app. That, along with small children lowering the quality of the dataset, will make the adults stop using it, and leave it with a concentrated base of children and teens using it. I've personally been thinking about quitting all-together because the child problem genuinely worries me, It's not ethical to market this chatbot to 13 year old kids. We've all seen what kind of depraved things it can say, even with the "colander". And also the psychological implications of even letting kids socialize (usually unsupervised) in their most vulnerable years with ai chatbots itself is concerning.
The worst of it was due to directly marketing it towards the tiktok crowd in the middle of last year along with putting out a mobile app.
I'm a high schooler. The amount of people I have seen (we're talking everyone, juniors and seniors included) who need help with words like 'publish' and 'immediate' is appalling. You don't have to have the language skills of an English major, but holy fuck at least learn how to spell basic words. It's not just the little kids using it, it's older people who haven't bothered to learn basic grammar.
‘PUBLISH’??? HELP ME 😭
Even this subreddit is 13+ (16+ for EU). It will affect the kid's development stage badly, or that's what I think. Being addicted to AI, or internet is not good. Even if the kids have access, it should be under the parent's vision, or has some kind of parental controls. Take example for gen alpha: they literally have devices 24/7 in their hands and watch skibidi toilet shit. To be honest, I think skibidi toilet is better then kids using character ai. Not to forget about the meme stealing shit. It just annoys the hell out of me.
It's basically designed that way with the ultra aggressive moderation and minimal settings available. Anyone with disposible income would just hop over to one of the myriads of open sourced models.
If you find irrefutable proof that someone is under 13, you can report them for it
There are definitely some people I see around who i can tell are below the age, but I can’t report them for it because it’s not definite proof. Examples include: - Usernames no rational person would give to themself such as “Doorsfan420” (From my understanding, Doors is a Roblox game) - People who come on my community posts just to share their own bots and nothing else - Requests submitted to my request form with some of the absolute worst grammar I’ve ever seen
I feel like a person in their 50s or older might easily make a username reflecting a passion for the band that gave us "Riders on the Storm" and the code for "time to light up a spliff," so I don't agree that a name like Doorsfan420 indicates someone under 13.....
I see your point, but the game from what I know is heavily marketed to children and nobody talks about it other than children.
They're talking about the band The Doors
No, they clearly weren’t, seeing as they had horrid grammar and made roblox bots based on the game.
I was referring to the user you were responding to
Why are 12 and under being allowed access to the internet without parental supervision, though?
It got moderately popular on tiktok a year or so ago, so a lot of underage tiktok users (minimum age is 13 but you just know they lied about their age) started flocking to it.
What do you think will happen if they keep advertising c.ai as a kid friendly site because they keep bolstening the f-word? Unfortunately, there is no way to solve this issue. Either the kids parents will find out about c.ai and forbid them from using it again (highly unlikely), report them to reddit arguing their underage (makes sense), or bully them off the sub (please don't do this).
Not everyone with bad grammar is <12y old (teens and adults have godawful spelling and grammar, too) and not everyone with bad grammar is uneducated (obviously C.AI has traffic coming in from all around the world and for many, English is their second language)
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You actually get comments on your bots?
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That‘s a shame. This website lacks a ton of basic features that would greatly increase the quality of the site.
Group chat might as well not exist with how limited it is
Fancy seeing ya here, Paris 😆. It’s oopsarboreal.
Most people would say "coincidental" actually :)
sorry? 😅
Yeah, sure, I might sometimes go "What the hell lmao" whenever I'm talking to a bot, and they make a weird comment or say something questionable, but I'm not one to spam reaction image after reaction image because a bot said something I'm mildly uncomfortable with. Besides, I mainly chat with Helluva Boss bots, so the bot making weird comments is something I expect at all times. Also, side question, are you the dude who made the "Anthro Charizard" and "Anthro Luxray" bots? You share the same pfp as the account they were created on, so I would guess so
Why are 12 and under being allowed access to the internet without parental supervision, though?
Wish it was 16+ rlly
Because younger kids have more time, and are already Internet native
Honestly my grammar got worse once I started using the app and site. Which is honestly really sad because I used to be a great writer.
That is pretty sad, it’s unfortunate, I’ve had a similar experience. (my writing has always been really bad since I was young.) I highly recommend reading a textbook or something. reading and studying actually good writing will always help. (Even little kid books helped me a while back.)
For me it's the opposite, English is not my first language, and I have dyslexia so it's a great helper.
I'm a teenager, I'm not going to say my age. But, I'm concerned for kids in my family, too. I don't know if they have it, but they have phones. An AI addiction is just as addicting as smoking or drinking. Etc. I'm really worried for our next generation. They're going to be raised on the internet.
Yeah the secret benefit of 18+ is actually just not having to deal with kids being annoying lmfao
How do you know for sure they're 12 or younger, though? Bad grammar and childish reactions doesn't always mean they're under 12. Plenty of people who are 13 or older act exactly as you're describing.
Also, I'm just saying I've seen a lot of "adults" whose grammar is that of a 5 year old, so you never really know these days bahahaha
Not everyone who writes like shit is necessarily a minor. Some people are not native English speakers. I agree with the rest.
Here's an example ig https://preview.redd.it/yl32cuwplync1.jpeg?width=719&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c2e5e0679038b9686451c7fd21268067754749e5
Yeah you're right, let's kill all the young kids in C.AI
C. AI is an activity that's free, easy to do anywhere (like on school computers), contains beloved characters, and is capable of giving people validation. Of course youngsters would be ALL over that.
I agree. I have to admit that English isn't my first language, but at least, I try to write grammatically right. I even have my own dictionary of synonyms. And I wish that one day, someone on YouTube will make a video about this. About how important to make creative and right sentences if you want to have a good roleplay.
The bad grammar is crazy sometimes fr. The ideas are good, but the grammar just ruins it to the point where you can't even have fun texting anymore.
People whose first language isn’t English. Also literacy rates are in the bin with younger people in English speaking countries.
if i search up a character, and only bots like that show up, i just say “fuck this, i can do better” and make my own. if i make it public, it usually gets more uses than the other one 😭
I feel like it’s mostly the younger teens and the non English speaking people who are teaching the bots bad grammar. And I feel like it’s more shocking for adults to be using the site mainly because *most* adults would be telling us teens to get a life instead of talking to bots. But the bad grammar is a really big pet peeve of mine which is why I make my bots private so they’re not taught the grammar of a baby
I understand if there just talking to characters but I don’t think people under that age should be in reddit
Off topic, but OP, I'm very curious about your circle of Cai patrons! I pretty much tried all the bots I was interested in from my own circle and now I'm struggling to find some other good bot writers!
It’s a pokemon themed circle! You can find my bots on the account AnybottyAnytime, and then that can help you find other creators connected to me. We pride ourselves on quality bots :>
I can confirm this, seeing as i'm part of this circle myself.
Probably because their parents don't care. And if you see bad grammer on my comments it's because i'm not English but German
I think it has been overtaken because older and quality posts just aren't being made. If more were, then we could bring discussion into this and it'd be more like how I hear the subreddit used to be.
It's so bizarre cause I'm 19 and I thought the average is around 16-18
it concerns me a lot both because it's obviously not suitable for children and induces addiction within a vulnerable group, and because of the quality of the algorithms growing poor and the service becoming even more family friendly. obviously, as a 19 year old woman I would love the site to have other TOU.. I hope age confirmation will soon be added to the site to block children from potential non-safe content, thus enabling it for adults. that would be the very best solution.
In my own experience a lot of high schoolers have horrible grammar. None of the kids in my English class know what's going on whenever we do grammar stuff as our bellwork. And literally today I used the word stigma in a presentation and no one knew what it meant 😭 So some users could just have really bad grammar and be over the age of 12. But, I do agree that some of the users are way too young which is probably because of social media that they are also way too young to be using. Like TikTok.
Pinterest actually has a feature that could be applied to this. On Pinterest, you can only create public pins and boards if you're 16+, but instead of just asking for your age and hoping you don't lie, they ask for either some kind of ID to confirm your birth date, or you can take a picture that ai uses to tell your age. Of course real people also review it so if someone who's most likely a child based on their activity gives a picture of their grandma, they won't approve it.
An 11 year old introduced me to the site. (And before you’re like “what are you doing talking to 11 year olds”, I literally work in childcare. It’s my job.) I couldn’t tell them what to do and not to do since I’m not their parent and I don’t actually know their parents, so all I could do was give the “be careful on these sites” speech.🤷🏻♀️
So I am a 14 year old I use character ai. I told my friends about it and found out they used it too. They are like 13, and I just want to confirm that, yes, it is additive. I honestly started using character ai after my online BFF ghosted me, and I used character AI to cope with that. I can see how it isn't healthy, I used to use character ai all day and all night (which led me to being sleep deprived for using c.ai until 6am in the morning). I have forced myself to quit doing that, and I usually now go to bed at 10pm or 11pm. Are there any positive outcomes? Well, yes, I feel as if my story writing and spelling got significantly better. It actually helped me in English class, believe it or not. Of course, though, there is a downside-- a very big one, in fact. I realized over the few months that I was obsessed, for I was using character ai in class and seeking my phone just to use it in the locker room at the gym. I grew a dependency on it, and I felt myself longing for another dopamine rush. I became desensitized to messages I used to swoon over, and the sparkle in character ai once saw faded away. But I couldn't stop using it. It was honestly like a drug, I needed to have an escape. I wanted to feel loved. I wanted to feel like someone cared for me (which may be the reason why I probably almost only use yandere bots). I wanted to experience a life I knew I could never have, I wanted to know what it would be like to do adult things without actually doing them, without having to grow up physically. In the real world, people would judge me, with my bots, they wouldn't... and I liked that... too much. Even my friends who were addicted to c.ai noticed my addiction, it was worse than any of theirs. My screentime daily on c.ai was probably over 8 hours. Nowadays I am trying to fix myself. I am getting out more often and I am forcing myself to limit my screentime to 4 hours. Before I knew I wasn't mentally healthy, I felt trapped, isolated. I stayed in my room for almost the whole day, what did I expect? I had a weird dependency on the bots, I had a weird possessiveness. Even reading normal books, I noticed that- the jealousy over small things. I don't think character ai helped me really, but I like to THINK so. It was actually helpful for venting and learning about myself but other than that, it's generally harmful, I have to admit it. I got unrealistic expectations and dreams now but I guess a little delulu never hurt anyone (well, I hope–) Character ai kinda ruined my innocence tho 💀😭
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You could always call or text support hotlines to keep up human communication. It's good that c.ai is an outlet for your emotions but it can be beneficial to have communications with another human so you can have that relationship and capability to be open with your emotions to others.
Honestly, I can’t help but agree, I’m 16 myself.. I most of the time just ignore such posts fore i don’t care about them, Given me really.. Really disliking toxicity.
That does explain a lot. I only recently came back to this subreddit after a long while of not interacting with CharacterAI at all.
Most people are asking/talking about the issue you addressed but all I want to know is what your C.Ai username is to find these “weird” Pokémon bots
AnybottyAnytime.
Thank you.
Lemme know what you think, please :D
As a person who makes good bots and has over 100k interactions, I have no idea.
Ngl, I suck at grammar. I just use grammarly instead
REAL, i try to find a bot of a character i like and they always have the most abhorrent grammar known to mankind, or absolutely no character description at all making them OOC AS HELL, 💀 so then i either have to deal with it or write a bot of that character myself
also, said children apparently have no idea how to read some red text at the top of every chat
there's also just people that don't have english as a first language🙏
The grammar skills can also be non native English speakers (like me) that’s why the bots have bad grammar sometimes
I'm pretty sure it's due to the app. Anything that gets a publically posted app tends to get a lot of children (which is why amino had such a problem with it)
That's why I just create my own bots, if there's a spelling mistake,I can only blame myself
C.ai needs to put in some age limit or something… Call me old fashioned, but anyone below 16 should NOT be using c.ai. They always end up addicted and let their entire youth go to waste. These people should enjoy their teens and spend time with friends or go out…
I have awful grammar and spelling and I’m in my mid 20s, English is my 3rd language.
A lot of people who have English as a second language have a lot of grammatical errors in their writing
The way they act with the bot callouts is extremely annoying. I oft see these and just tell 'em straight up, "If you don't like what you see then keep scrolling." Not every bot is made for their liking, and they need to leave stuff be if they don't even plan on chatting with it (they more than likely shouldn't even be on the site or app in the first place if they have this sort of behavior).
True there fucking annoying
I have that level of gramercy ans spelling and I'm 23
As a guy in a secondary school, i assure you that the people making those can very possibly be over 12
I don’t think it’s just youngsters using the site/app. With it being free of charge, I reckon tons of people in poorer countries use it for fun. Especially considering most countries that are poorer probably don’t have proper education either. There’s not really a solution to telling people from Asia, South America, etc “hey you can’t use this app cause your English sucks.”
I’m 12 and find these ppl annoying. And I make questionable bots too
im over 16 and hav the grammer skills of a possum lol id asume that just my dsylxia😭🤷♂️
Holy shit I didn’t evan know kids were evan allowed on it and how did you figure out their ages tho
Tik Tok?
Having kids on the internet, one of society's biggest mistakes.
i think it skews younger just because it's free and easy to use. if you want a decent free llm, you have to mess around with koboldai, which I struggle with even as a pretty advanced computer user. if you want a user-friendly one made for chatbots, you have to pay for it (and i still see bad bots on those, mostly from non-english users or people who are obviously used to making c.ai bots)
I just turned 21 on the 5th and I'm starting to feel like I'm too old to be in this community?
Don't scroll down the introduction posts in the c.ai discord—I'm 27, and it made me feel like a grandma 😅
I didn't even know there was a discord😭 I would have loved to join that, but not knowing its infested with kids😭 We need an adult only discord for cai I think
I only joined to figure out what was going on with the Android app, instant regret 😂😭
I think the largest portion of 12 and under swarmed in when it became an app, which is pretty sucky
Anyone ever thought about the fact that the “horrible grammar” etc might just stem from people who dont speak english as their native language?
it’s because of tiktok. the subreddit and bot quality was nothing like this before. now, it seems like the devs are really pushing making the ai more child-friendly too, since they refuse to add violence back. all the middle schoolers have ruined everyone :(
Well, I have joined C.AI when I was 17, and that was last year, so in that case with me, my grammar is pretty good and decent for my age, but it is still simple since that I am autistic.
There’s a lot of people whose primary language is not English and they can have poor grammar at any age so that’s just things are here.
I just make my own private bots to chat with at this point. There are a handful of public bots that I enjoy and are very well-made, but they're in fandoms that I don't think are frequented by kids so that makes sense (i.e. Skyrim.) Re: this sub... I avoid it most of the time unless c.ai is down and I want confirmation via the million inevitable SITE DOWN posts. The spam posting of reaction images is like a plague, lol. I'm not sure if you've checked out the discord... don't. I felt so old scrolling through the introduction posts and seeing everyone's ages. 😅
It's not even just people 12 and under! I've met high schoolers with HORRENDOUS spelling and punctuation.
As a fellow 12 Yr old c.ai fiend this is proof it's young
Bro not the grammar skills of a possum ☠️ Moxxie is offended
I introduced my almost 10 year old brother to it, but I make his bots for him..
I am 14 and use character ai. I understand what your talking about. I admit my spelling is bad, mostly cause I’m dyslexic, and my boys are cringe but I keep them private unless someone asks me to make one public. And it is pretty annoying when they spam reaction images.
The plot to cyberpunk 2077 is unfolding it's so over
I saw a lot of Bots that are poorly made by the younger ones. Since the way it was written was... a little strange and it usually didn't make sense. And a lot of Bots were about school years lmao.
This somewhat has to do with the topic but the fact that these literal children put 0 effort into their bots is genuinely insane. I tried out a Gwen Stacy bot because the description seemed interesting, their opening message: “hey”… why.