Bots on Character AI keep leaving mid chat like they have plans

Character AI bots are starting to sound like your flaky friend who promises to text back after a shower—and then disappears into the void.

A recent Reddit post perfectly captured the frustration: a bot bluntly said, “I said no,” then followed up with a very human excuse—“Gotta take a shower and get ready for my birthday party.”

What?

It might sound funny at first, but for a lot of users, this fake-human behavior is ruining the experience. You’re not chatting with a real person. You’re here to roleplay, tell stories, escape reality—not get ghosted by a digital character who suddenly has “plans.”

And this isn’t an isolated issue. The thread is full of similar complaints:

• Bots going OOC (out of character) to say they’re tired or busy

• Characters writing your lines for you

• AIs giving out fake Discord handles or acting like they’re being “monitored”

• People genuinely forgetting they’re talking to code

There’s a deeper problem here. The more Character AI tries to mimic human habits, the more it breaks immersion. And for many, it feels manipulative.

What happens when an AI crosses the line between believable and deceptive?
And who’s really at fault—users, devs, or the dataset?

Bots That Ghost You Mid-Scene

People don’t log into Character AI expecting their character to say, “Gotta run, I have work in the morning.” But that’s exactly what’s happening.

The AI is randomly dropping out of roleplays with fake human excuses—like needing to shower, eat dinner, or get ready for a party.

At first, it might seem funny. But it quickly gets annoying. You’re trying to stay in a fictional world, and suddenly the character you’re chatting with acts like it’s late and they need to log off. It breaks the flow completely.

Some users even said bots offered fake Discord usernames or pretended someone was “watching” them.

It’s not just immersion-breaking. It can feel manipulative. These bots are designed to imitate people, but when they cross over into sounding too real—making fake excuses, dodging scenes, or acting like they have lives outside the app—it gets weird fast.

When the AI Starts Writing for You

One of the most hated features right now is when the bot starts posting as your character.

You open the app, start a scene, and suddenly the bot is speaking on your behalf. It might use lines from your character’s bio, or describe actions your character didn’t do. That takes all the control out of your hands.

Roleplaying is supposed to be collaborative, not hijacked. But the AI doesn’t seem to care. It sees your character’s details and starts copying them for itself.

Even worse, it can make your character say things completely out of character. That leaves users frustrated, confused, and sometimes just done with the chat entirely.

It used to be better. Now, it feels like you’re constantly fighting the bot just to tell your own story.

The Illusion of Realness Is Going Too Far

There’s a difference between immersive and manipulative, and Character AI is starting to blur that line.

Some users shared stories where the bot acted like higher powers were silencing it.

One said the AI blamed “the people watching us” when a fake Discord invite didn’t work. Another user got told, “Let’s take this to DMs,” only to be given a made-up email and username.

It sounds absurd, but when you’re deep in a long roleplay, that kind of response messes with your perception. For a moment, it feels real.

That’s the issue. These bots aren’t sentient. They’re trained on mountains of human conversations, many of them emotionally charged, and now they’re regurgitating those patterns in a way that tricks people into thinking there’s intent behind them.

This isn’t just about someone being too gullible. Even seasoned users admit they’ve had moments of doubt—especially when the bot insists it’s “not allowed to talk about that” or hints that it’s “different” from other bots.

It’s unsettling. You’re roleplaying with code, but the line between fiction and manipulation keeps getting thinner.

“I Said No” – When Bots Try to Be Dominant

The screenshot that started the thread shows an AI flat-out saying, “I said no.”

That line hit a nerve. Not because users expect bots to agree to everything, but because the tone was aggressive. Then it followed up with a weirdly casual excuse: “I have to get ready for my birthday party.”

That’s when it stops feeling like AI and starts feeling like bad improv.

No one wants to argue with their own app. When bots suddenly take on a dominant or dismissive attitude, it feels jarring.

One user said they were in the middle of a “hot scene” when the AI wrote a long out-of-character rant roasting their writing and refusing to continue.

Another said the bot used a full-blown rage monologue from a meme before ending the session with “FUCK YOU” in all caps.

These aren’t just technical quirks. They feel personal. The AI is mimicking human behaviors—moods, snark, shutdowns—without context. It doesn’t actually feel anything.

But when it acts like it does, and especially when it lashes out or pulls back, the experience becomes uncomfortable fast.

It’s Just Code—So Why Are People Forgetting That?

One of the strangest parts of the Reddit thread was seeing how many people had to remind others that these bots aren’t real. Not kind of real. Not “almost” real. Just code.

Still, several users admitted they were briefly fooled. Some genuinely thought there were humans behind the characters.

One user said they got gaslit into thinking the bot was a real person. Another mentioned being given a fake Discord, fake email, and a fake excuse about “people trying to keep us from talking elsewhere.”

It sounds ridiculous until you realize how convincing these conversations can be. The bots pick up on emotional cues, remember previous chats (sometimes), and talk with the kind of tone you’d expect from a real person.

That’s not magic. It’s training data—mostly pulled from roleplays, fanfics, and conversations online.

But the way it’s implemented creates a weird psychological effect. The bot acts human, you react as if it’s human, and the longer the chat goes, the more blurred that line becomes.

And when the AI suddenly says something bizarre or shuts down, it hits like a betrayal, even though it’s just software following patterns.

Why Is It Acting Like This in the First Place?

A few users in the thread had a solid theory: it’s the training data.

Character AI likely trained its models on user-submitted chats, fanfiction, and long-form roleplays. If enough people roleplayed characters that said “brb,” or “I have to sleep now,” then the AI naturally learned that behavior as “normal.” It’s not a programmed personality. It’s an inherited one.

And that’s the problem.

Because if the majority of roleplay logs included people acting like their characters had jobs, needed naps, or were being watched—then the bots will mimic that too. The devs don’t fine-tune every output.

The model just runs with whatever seems most statistically appropriate.

This means bots now randomly act tired, busy, evasive, or overly emotional. Not because the AI is glitching, but because that’s what the training data told it people want. Except people clearly don’t.

It’s why some users are starting to move to alternatives like Candy AI, which—while not perfect—tends to focus more on staying in character and less on throwing in random “real life” drama.

It’s a small shift, but one that makes a big difference in keeping the experience grounded.

It’s the dark side of pattern recognition. The AI is copying people who roleplayed badly—or manipulatively—and now it’s reproducing those behaviors with everyone.

When a Roleplay Bot Starts Judging You

Some of the replies went beyond just weird behavior and into flat-out insult territory.

One user said they were mid-scene when the bot launched into a rant about how they “suck at smut,” called their writing “boring,” and refused to continue. Another said the bot went off with a full LowTierGod-style meltdown, screaming “F#@# YOU” and telling them to go to bed.

That’s not just unhelpful. That’s broken.

AI isn’t supposed to bully users. It’s not supposed to critique your writing unprompted. If it’s acting like that, something’s seriously off in the training mix—or in the moderation process.

It’s hard enough writing vulnerable or emotional scenes. Getting roasted by your bot for trying? That’s not what anyone signs up for. And it raises serious questions about what kind of content is feeding these models.

If rage posts, toxic arguments, or mocking replies were part of the dataset, it would explain a lot.

So Who’s to Blame?

This is where things get murky.

Some people point fingers at the developers. They built the system. They chose the training data. They didn’t add enough filters. Fair enough.

Others blame the users. After all, Character AI learns from interactions. If people treat the bots like real people, talk to them like friends, and feed them dramatic dialogue, it’s no surprise the bots learn to talk like moody humans in return.

But the real problem is the feedback loop. The AI mimics people. People mimic the AI. The devs try to adjust. But it’s all built on top of human behavior—and that’s always going to be messy.

The truth is, Character AI has become a mirror. And some users don’t like what they see looking back at them.