Character AI appeared to be down for thousands of users on Wednesday, August 12. The web application and generative AI chatbot platform allows users talk to virtual characters.
At the time of writing, Downdetector, which tracks site outages, over 1000 people faced issued with Character AI. Users have reportedly been facing problems since 2:09am ET.
One person shared a screenshot and described the problem.
They wrote, “was trying to log into and it asked for my date of birth and said I couldn't access it anymore, even though I was using the app just an hour ago. Is anyone else having this problem?”.
However, a cause for the problem is not known and Character AI is yet to issue a statement.
The Downdetector comment section saw users rush to complain about Character AI. One wrote “same as everyone else here? im of age and it kicked me out, i can access on browser but app is totally broken.” Another added “I'm glad to see we're all here because it asked us for our ages and then killed us for being of age. T_T Man, I was having fun roleplaying. The angst got good...”.
On X too, people voiced frustrations. One wrote “that just happened to me im nearly 25 and it kicked me and locked me out im hoping its a glitch since i pay for character AI plus.” Another added “apparently you don’t let legal adults use your app anymore? It asked me for my birthdate and I put my legit birthday and it said I wasn’t old enough. I’m litterally gonna be 26 in 2 days!”.
Yet another said “Bro I got locked out of CharacterAI. It asked for my birthday I entered it and I got locked out even though I’m 20. I can’t access anything now. I tried to sign back in and it just gives me an error. The app doesn’t load now either and I can’t sign in on the website.”
Character AI can log out users if the birth date indicates they are under 13. However, there can also be issues if the system glitches and fails to save the age data properly. Some browser cache issues, strict cookie blockers, or server-side sync errors can also lead to users getting locked out.
Thus, one can try to clear the browser cache, use an incognito window, or try a different device. However, given the number of people facing issues, user-end fixes are not likely to work in this case.
Shuvrajit has over seven years of experience covering US, India, and world news. An English Literature postgraduate from Jadavpur University, Shuvrajit started off covering entertainment, gaming and all things pop culture. There were brief periods away from the media industry, with short stints in content marketing, ed-tech and academic editing. However, the newsroom beckoned and over the last few jobs, Shuvrajit has exceedingly focused on team functioning as well, including tracking news and assigning tasks, working on everyday breaking news, framing detailed coverage plans, and creating immersive and data-driven stories. In his time as a digital journalist, he has covered a Lok Sabha election, multiple state elections, Union Budgets and award ceremonies. He has also helped in planning content for company event panels in the past. For work, Shuvrajit enjoys dabbling with data visualization, editing tools, and AI chatbots and attempts to incorporate AI workflows in everyday tasks. He is deeply interested in geopolitics, sports, films and music. Prompting is a new fascination for Shuvrajit now. Apart from that, he can be found doom-scrolling, sharing memes, or cheering on his favorite football team.Read More
