Technology

2816 readers

31 users here now

Tech related news and discussion. Link to anything, it doesn't need to be a news article.

Let's keep the politics and business side of things to a minimum.

Rules

No memes

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

rimu@piefed.social

AI Startup Once Valued at a Billion Dollars Declares Bankruptcy (futurism.com)

submitted 1 hour ago by rimu@piefed.social to c/technology@piefed.social

2 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Character.AI, the GenAI site that convinced some children to kill themselves, has gone bankrupt after parents sued them.

we found hordes of chatbots explicitly dedicated to themes of pedophilia, suicide, self-harm, and eating disorder coaching, as well as a thriving community of users creating chatbots designed to simulate school shootings, romanticize real mass shooters, and even impersonate the real child victims of mass shootings.

top 2 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] rimu@piefed.social 4 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

As well as harming it's users and then getting sued, the economics of it all just didn't add up.

https://www.404media.co/character-ais-bankruptcy-documents-show-the-economics-of-ai-dont-work/

The company said that in 2024, the company spent $13.8 million per month on AI compute; in 2025, it spent $10 million per month on AI compute. The company’s subscription revenue peaked at $2.8 million per month, but at times was less than $1 million per month. Its revenue from all sources, including ads, has peaked at $5.3 million per month.

[–] tacosanonymous@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 48 minutes ago

It’s insane that losing a billion dollars didn’t matter to anyone, it was the lawsuits that did them in.