'AI safety shouldn't be an afterthought': Character.AI CEO
Karandeep Anand, the CEO of Character.AI (and Time's Person of the Year 2025), wants everyone to know: AI safety shouldn't be an afterthought.
Speaking at Synapse India Conclave, he said, "Someone needs to take the lead in AI safety. Companies can't just say that their competition isn't doing it, so they won't do it."
Controversies led to age restrictions on Character. AI
Character. AI is huge among Gen Z—with 20 million users chatting, gaming, and roleplaying with bots.
But after controversies in 2024—including a wrongful-death lawsuit related to a teenager's suicide—Anand's team banned users under 18 from having open-ended conversations and introduced age-based restrictions and other safety-focused changes.
Anand hopes more tech companies will step up
Anand shared that his company started putting customer safety restrictions in place before others did: "We at Character. AI took the step of imposing restrictions for customer safety, and Meta followed suit. Someone needs to set the bold example,".
He hopes more tech companies will step up and set bold examples on AI safety.