Google search interest spiked for Character.AI on Monday after several users said the service appeared to be down.
Character.AI is a chatbot service that uses artificial intelligence to engage with humans. It describes itself as “super-intelligent chat bots that hear you, understand you, and remember you.”
The service introduced new safety protocols last year after a teenager user died by suicide after engaging with the chatbot. The teen’s family sued Character.AI, saying the chatbot’s technology was “defective and/or inherently dangerous.”
Character.AI is intended for users over the age of 13.
The outage comes less than two months after Google’s AI chatbot, Gemini, threatened a graduate student after asking for homework assistance.
Newsweek reached out to Character.AI via email for comment on Monday.
This is a developing story and will be updated when more information is available.