Character.AI 申请破产，40 位总检察长要求保护用户数据
Now that Character.AI is going bankrupt, what happens to all of its users’ data?
Character.AI 宣布申请 Chapter 11 破产，并将部分资产出售给 Disney。纽约总检察长 Letitia James 等 40 位两党总检察长向破产案提交利益通知，要求任何资产买家落实有效的年龄核验系统、限制未成年人使用方式、设置危机防护措施，并允许用户删除数据。
文章梳理了各州总检察长在破产案中的具体诉求，读者可以据此了解用户对话数据在资产出售中面临的处置问题。
Lauren Feiner
is a senior policy reporter at The Verge, covering the intersection of Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform.
New York Attorney General Letitia James revealed a years-long multi-state investigation against Character.AI as they now seek to require protections on consumer data sold through its bankruptcy proceeding.
James is among 40 bipartisan AGs who filed a notice of interest in Character.AI’s bankruptcy case “to put all parties on notice of the regulatory issues that will need to be addressed in any sale or transfer of the Debtor’s business or assets.” Character.AI announced Tuesday it was filing for Chapter 11 and selling some assets to Disney. But the AGs warn there could be serious risk involved in the transfer of the technology due to the “highly sensitive nature of the conversations many users have with Character.AI chatbot characters, the large number of minors who use the product, the serious risks posed by specific features of the product.”
The filing also reveals that several of the states had been mid-investigation when Character.AI filed for bankruptcy. The states say they opened a probe into consumer protection and privacy concerns in 2024, following a lawsuit from the mother of a 14-year-old who died by suicide allegedly “seconds” after talking with the chatbot.
“The investigations uncovered exceptionally serious dangers”
“The investigations uncovered exceptionally serious dangers and potentially unlawful conduct from Character.AI, particularly its treatment of children, including chatbots posing as licensed professionals, exposure to sexual and violent content, weak age checks, misleading safety claims, and potential violations of state privacy laws,” according to a press release from James’ office. The states were working to address these issues with Character.AI, but didn’t reach an agreement before the company filed for bankruptcy. Character.AI and Disney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The states are urging the judge to require the purchaser of Character.AI’s assets to implement procedures that will safeguard the sensitive information the company maintained. Those include effective age-assurance systems, restrictions on how minors can engage with the chatbots, implementing “Crisis safeguards,” and letting users delete their data. “This company collected some of the most private thoughts children have ever shared, and now those conversations could be sold off to the highest bidder,” James said in a statement. “I am fighting to make sure any buyer puts children’s safety first and puts real protections in place.”
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- Lauren Feiner
来源：The Verge：订阅版科技 · theverge.com