Oooooh… yeah, I do like this thread and have to use that character AI.
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I’m strongly against AI uses like these tbh, and it’s really no use testing their ‘intelligence’ on information that’s readily available online because that’s kind of just… what it does? It scours the internet to answer questions you ask it. I really don’t see the difference between using AIs like this and just… running a smart Google search yourself? If you know what words to include and exclude when searching about specific topics (I live and die by using quotation marks and -excluding words from search results) you’ll end up with the same knowledge as an AI chatbot can give you.
They’re really not very smart at all beyond that point, as people have shown through various exploits you can use to get it to give you information (again, readily available) that it refuses to otherwise, like how to make explosives etc.
They cannot answer questions about literature beyond facts or what’s already been said on existing websites for example, and they also can’t access articles that are behind paywalls, including things like academic journals, so askng it more technical questions is useless, and some have been shown to completely make up information when the only facts are locked inside paywalled journals.
That aside, I also don’t really care for character chatbots like character.ai either, and I just don’t see a point? They all run on the same knowledge base, so there’s only so much variance they can achieve when speaking as different characters, and it can never be accurate unless trained heavily on relevant material, like (IIRC) the Mario bot. Maybe I’m just picky, but I went in there going “he would not say that.” Again, I obviously know it’s because they run on a single knowledge base, but the inaccuracy takes away from it heavily for me. I really don’t see the fun in it myself, but I’m just very pretentious about everything lol
In conclusion: These are just fancy Google search bots, and I’m heavily unimpressed by character.ai and how surface-level it feels.
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Oh? I didn’t know that, but then again they’re not very specific on how it’s trained.
But good points! I mostly ask it questions that are longer, because sometimes google fails at answering those. It also helps to have a list of all previous questions and answers in the chat for reference, but that’s about it. It’s kindaaa useful for writing essays and stuff but I noticed it uses a very predictable template for those and it ignores specific requests.
True, though it’s still kinda new. I haven’t been using it for any characters aside from joke ones (like the folding chair) so I can’t really say anything on it.
same here, i’ve discussed these in some academic circles and it’s… really underwhelming for all they’re hyped up to be
i think that one of the biggest issues is that AI doesn’t understand what it’s saying, it just parrots things from what it can find online (and even saying this feels disrespectful to parrots since those usually understand their and others’ words to some extent) without really processing it, so any deeper level analysis is… not good
i feel the exact same, i recently discovered that mischaracterisation is a squick of mine so i get really put off by this kinda thing
i really wouldn’t recommend this
a friend of mine is a college level prof and he’s complained about students using AI for their essays… the quality, logic and arguments are extremely lacking, and it’s obvious it’s not written by a human person
also it would be a violation to academic integrity which can lead to some messy issues for the one using it
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I completely agree. AI is fine to mess around with for fun, but don’t use it for anything serious.
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At this point there is no academic value in AI. But, I have to say, it can be a source of inspiration for sure. I have used it for example to help me develop a character further than I would have done otherwise. There are definitely things that can boost creativity in AI. But what’s most important is to see it as a tool, not a one step fix all thing 
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oh DEFINITELY
a professor made his other class write their midterms by asking ChatGPT about the (Spanish medieval) book of their choice and what the students had to do was to fact check, expand more some ideas, prove things wrong, and write their own things and ideas based on it which i think is a pretty neat usage of the AI
yEAH EXACTLY
tbh when it comes to art AI i’m more iffy than text ones, but yeah it can be a pretty interesting tool
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Why does that actually sound quite fun and like a super interesting way of using it. It both teaches about the actual contents, but also the pros and cons of AI in general.
I agree with you there. Especially also since a lot of art AIs are based on actual art that’s been used without even having permission.
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All art AIs are like that, tbh. And so are most (if not all) writing AIs. They have to be trained on something.
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That’s mostly what I use it for
English isn’t my first language, so English essays don’t help me anywhere. Sure, it helps with English class, but not when I have to write an essay for an exam. So I avoid using it for writing since I’m fluent enough myself
Definitely this too! It’s so useful for building up on traits/backstories, as well giving backstory ideas based on context, or giving names based on traits
That sounds pretty fun tbh! And it can make people recognize when something is made by an ai.
I use it often so it’s easy for me to tell apart art/text written by ai, but for many people it’s unclear.
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Fair point yeah, though I believe there are some art AIs that at least only train with open access material. While still a bit iffy, that’s a lot better in my opinion.
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I definitely agree with this, too, it’s a really good use of AI both when it comes to analyzing text and to help detect when something is written with AI.
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right? i found it a very interesting exercise
yeah which is why i’m… staying away from art AI lol
and well the (slight) advantage of the writing ones is that one can do some reverse searching and quote the sources (or at least check if the sources exist lmao) so there are ways to still give credit where credit’s due
now, there is a… significant distance between saying and doing
but again, at least in academic stuff, plagiarism checker would do its thing so i’m not that worried about people stealing ideas without consequences
(and iirc similar checkers work for non academic stuff so there are at least resources for this to be better)
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That’s not always as easy as it sounds tho, in some cases it is, but definitely not always. Well, it also depends a bit on which AI and mainly how it’s been trained and just the mechanics behind it…
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oh no i agree
but well i’m thinking about using it as a tool so like
AI generates smth
there’s an idea you like
you do research to understand where it came from and use those sources instead of just what the AI said
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I do think that’d be an okay use, yeah
I still think most people… won’t do that, because people like taking the easy way out, but sometimes I feel totally stuck and just want an idea to get me started, so it does seem like a useful tool just to generate said ideas (even if I probably wouldn’t do even that because I’m such a stickler for doing everything myself)
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Okay, yeah. But some AIs can actually blend ideas from different sources, so if you get an idea based on that, good luck finding where that’s AI output was based on. It’s just not always really possible depending on the AI, and that might actually become more problematic if AI becomes more advanced.
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honestly same
but well, there are options for like
a good use for these
and i wanna focus on that bc otherwise i’ll grow extremely bitter and resentful to any and all AI
ndhdhdjdkhechdk 
oof that’s true, you’re right
in those cases i can only hope that AI detecting works and calls people out when needed (im thinking plagiarism in particular but there are probably many other cases)
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I don’t have anything to add since I’ve just been using ai for fun, but it’s interesting seeing you guy’s perspectives! I never thought about most of these things tbh
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Understandable and same
Yeaaah, that is definitely a problem but well
We just gotta keep trying to detect AI as well as we can
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