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Teens are torturing AI chatbots, confiding in them, and sometimes dating them.
We’re still grappling with the impact chatbots are having on younger people. But most of the attention is on higher-profile models like ChatGPT, Claude, and good ol’ MechaHitler. But there’s a whole world of role-playing chatbots like Character.ai that have quietly exploded in popularity. According to the New York Times:
He [Quentin] enjoyed harassing the bots with “funny violence,” he said, like running them over with a lawn mower, inflicting harm in an environment with no actual victims. He also created elaborate story lines in which he fought or flirted with his favorite characters. Occasionally, he would indulge in what he called “devious acts” on a platform now called PolyBuzz that offered more sexually explicit chatbots.
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