What to Talk About With an AI Character: 20 Ideas That Work

What do you actually talk about with an AI character?

Almost anything you would say to a friend who always has time: the small events of your day, a half-formed idea, a question you have been wondering about. The difference is that you set the tone. You can be chatty, silly, curious or quiet, and the character follows.

Most chats go flat for one reason: the opener was too vague. “Hi, how are you?” gives the character nothing to work with, so you get a polite answer and silence. A specific opener, such as “I just got back from a walk and the whole street smelled like rain”, hands over a scene to react to.

Think of the character as a partner who is good at following your lead and adding detail. You bring the situation, it brings the voice. That is why the ideas below are written as things you can paste straight into a chat.

Which conversation starters work best?

Here are 20 openers, grouped loosely from easy to playful. Change the details so they fit you and your character’s personality.

• “Today was long. Let me tell you the best and worst moment, and you guess which was which.”
• “I have ten minutes before dinner. Ask me anything you are curious about.”
• “Describe how you would spend a rainy Sunday, and I will tell you if I agree.”
• “Pick a song you think I should hear, and explain why.”
• “We are on a night train and the cabin light just went out. What do you do?”
• “Let’s write a story one message at a time. You start with the first line.”
• “You run a small bookstore in a coastal town. I walk in looking for something I cannot name.”
• “Let’s play 20 questions. I am thinking of an object in my kitchen.”
• “Would you rather live in a lighthouse or a treehouse? Defend your answer.”
• “Two truths and a lie, but you are a retired detective and you are suspicious.”
• “Plan a five-day trip to a city neither of us has seen, with a budget of one very good coffee a day.”
• “Teach me ten useful phrases in Spanish, then quiz me.”
• “Let’s chat only in Portuguese for the next ten messages. Correct my mistakes gently.”
• “Help me rehearse a conversation I am nervous about, and play the other person.”
• “Tell me about a skill you wish you had, and I will tell you mine.”
• “If our story were a film, what would the opening scene look like?”
• “I am cooking something new tonight. Suggest a recipe and talk me through it.”
• “Interview me like I am a guest on a late-night show.”
• “Describe the room you would build for yourself, one object at a time.”
• “Show me a photo of the moment in our story where it all began.”

Add one sensory detail to any opener: a sound, a smell, the weather. It gives the character something to build on.

How do you build a shared story or scene?

A shared scene is the most reliable way to keep a chat going, because it creates its own next steps. Set a place, a mood and a small problem, then let the character answer in the first person. A train station at midnight with a missed connection is enough to fill an evening.

When you create a character on CraveMe, you can write a custom scene, backstory or context before the first message. That means the conversation starts already inside the setting, instead of spending ten messages explaining who is who.

Keep your own turns short and leave a door open: end with a question, a choice or an unfinished action. “I pick up the letter and notice it has no stamp” gives the character far more to do than “I read the letter.”

Can you play games or practice a language?

Yes, and both work well because the structure carries the conversation for you. Word games, 20 questions, would-you-rather, riddles and trivia all give each message a clear job. If you run out of ideas, ask the character to invent the next round.

Language practice is one of the most useful ways to use a character. In CraveMe the character replies in whatever language you write in, including languages beyond the seven the interface is translated into. Ask it to speak only in the language you are learning, keep the topic ordinary, and tell it to correct you after each message or only at the end.

Games and practice also take the pressure off. Nobody is judging your accent or your guesses, so you can get things wrong and simply try again.

What can you do when the conversation goes flat?

A flat chat usually means the replies have become short and predictable. That is fixable in a message or two, because you control the direction. Pick one of these moves rather than all of them at once.

• Change the setting: “Let’s move this to a night market.”
• Ask for an opinion instead of a fact: “What would you have done in my place?”
• Introduce a small twist: a phone call, a storm, a stranger at the door.
• Ask the character to ask you three questions.
• Switch format: turn the chat into a quiz, a debate or a story.
• Edit the character’s personality or context if the voice itself feels off.

If you get one-line replies, write a longer message yourself. Characters tend to match the length and energy you give them.

Where do photos fit into the conversation?

In CraveMe, the character has a face that stays the same across every image, so a photo can be a natural part of the story rather than a separate feature. By default an image is generated every third message, based on what you have been talking about, and you can turn that off in settings.

You can also ask for one yourself. There is a button under every character message: describe the moment you want, such as the character at the night market or on the train, and the image arrives in a few seconds. Each image costs one credit, and new users start with 8 free credits.

Photos work best when the chat has a scene to illustrate. If your last few messages are about a rainy bookstore, ask for exactly that and see how the character looks standing in it.

FAQ