Character.AI 申请破产并将部分资产售予 Disney，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?
- 1Character.AI 宣布申请 Chapter 11 破产，并将部分资产出售给 Disney
- 2纽约州总检察长联合 40 位两党总检察长向破产案提交利益声明，要求资产出售前处理监管问题
- 3多州称 2024 年启动调查，指控包括聊天机器人冒充持证专业人士、年龄核验薄弱、误导安全宣传
- 4各州敦促法院要求买家落实年龄核验、限制未成年人使用、危机防护和用户数据删除机制
这起破产出售的实质是监管介入资产交易，用户对话数据被视作必须先行处置的敏感资产而非普通财产。
- 影响：收购含大量用户对话数据的 AI 资产时，监管要求可能成为交割前提；面向未成年人的产品会把年龄核验和危机防护计入合规成本；州级调查未结就申请破产，也不能让这些程序自动终止。
- 参考：可考虑把未决监管调查和数据合规列入 AI 资产收购或采购的尽调清单；若产品含聊天功能，值得先对照年龄核验、危机防护、用户数据删除三项自查；涉及未成年人场景的，先算出补齐这些机制的预算。
- 依据：调查发现与指控来自 James 办公室新闻稿和法院文件的口径，Character.AI 与 Disney 未回应置评请求，尚无独立验证。
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.”
Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.
- Lauren Feiner
来源：The Verge · AI · theverge.com