AI’s next smart move might be scrapping the chatbot entirely

Conversational AI introduces too much risk and unpredictability

- PARMY OLSON

Switching to suggested prompts and buttons makes AI easier to use.

(ISTOCKPHOTO)

For three years, chatbots have been the face of generative artificial intelligence. Type anything in them to get a personalized response, which morphs into a seemingly magical dialogue with a machine.

While that conversational interface may seem the best way to harness large language models (LLMs), some companies are starting to ditch chatbots, worried about liability and loss of control.

They've found that even with guardrails, users can 'jailbreak' the technology and get a chatbot to go off topic, sometimes in harmful or unsavoury directions. They might be leaving magic on the table, but these firms are also potentially building safer, more focused products, and raising questions about whether chatbots really are the future interface for AI or just a fad.

Character.ai is one of the most popular consumer AI apps after ChatGPT, with roughly 20 million monthly active users, many of them young people who chat to characters on its platform from the world of anime, books or movies. This month, however, the app is banning users under 18 from having conversations with its chatbots, following complaints about kids becoming too dependent and in some cases experiencing psychological harm.