At Stanford, dozens of attendees participated in a lengthy conversation about the risks as well as benefits of bot companions. “At the end of the day we actually see a lot of agreement,” says Sunny Liu, director of research programs at Stanford. He highlighted the group’s enthusiasm for “ways to use these tools to bring other people together.”
teen safety
How AI companions can impact youth was a primary topic of discussion, including perspectives from staff at Characters.AI, which is designed for role-playing and is popular among teens, as well as online health experts like the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital.
The focus on young users comes as many parents are suing chatbot makers, including OpenAI and Character.AI, over the deaths of children interacting with the bots. OpenAI added a list of new safety features for teens as part of its response. And next week, Character.ai plans to restrict users under the age of 18 from accessing the chat feature.
Through 2025, AI companies have either explicitly or implicitly acknowledged that they can do more to protect vulnerable users, such as children, who may interact with peers. “It is acceptable to engage a child in romantic or erotic interactions,” an internal Meta document outlining AI behavior guidelines states, Reuters reports.
Amid an uproar from lawmakers and angry parents, Meta changed the guidance and updated the company’s safety approach toward teens.
roleplay roll call
While Characters.AI attended the workshop, no one from Elon Musk’s bot Grok along with similar roleplay site Replika or NSFW anime companions were there. Spokespeople for Replica and Grok did not respond to immediate requests for comment.
At the completely obvious end of the spectrum, came the creators of Candy.ai, which specializes in charming chatbots for straight men. Users of the adults-only platform created by EverAI can pay money to generate uncensored images of synthetic women, with background stories that mimic common pornography. For example, the female companions featured on Candy’s cover include Mona, a “rebellious stepsister” with whom you are home alone, and Elodie, a friend’s daughter who “just turned 18.”