On Thursday, July 31st, Linden Lab provided an update on the AI Character Generation project which indicates it it to be paused / closed at the start of September.
The project was initially launched in December 2024 and powered by Convai, a platform for developers and creators proving an intuitive approach to designing characters with multimodal perception abilities in both virtual and real world environments (see: Linden Lab leverage Convai for AI character generation in Second Life). However, it was shortly thereafter suspended as a result of community feedback, before being re-launched to a wider audience of potential users at the end of February 2025.
The Character Designer was launched as an experimental feature to explore the potential of AI-powered characters in Second Life. Built in collaboration with our AI technology partner Convai, this tool enabled residents to create interactive, virtual characters with conversational capabilities.
From elaborate roleplay scenarios to immersive visitor greeters, your projects and feedback have been invaluable. This pause gives us time to carefully evaluate everything we’ve learned and determine how best to evolve this technology in a way that aligns with the broader future of Second Life.
This is not the end of AI in Second Life; rather, it is a thoughtful pause as we refine our strategy and continue exploring new opportunities for innovation.
– Linden Lab blog post
The “pause” is set to come into effect from Monday, September 1st, 2025, with the Lab further noting that as of that date:
- It will no longer be possible to create, deploy, or run AI Characters using the Character Designer interface.
- Characters created through the Designer will no longer function or appear in-world.
- Previously created characters and their memory will not be retained post-pause.
- Any alt accounts created specifically for testing the Character Generator will remain valid Second Life accounts, and can be logged into just like any other alt account.
Community support for the project will continue through the following channels:
- A dedicated forum thread for on-going Q&A and feedback.
- Second Life Discord for real-time responses from staff and developers.
- Support Portal for any account-specific issues.
In addition, those who have used the Character Generator are encouraged to record their work during the wind-down period and share video through the forum thread or suitable platforms.
The sunsetting of this project does not mean the end of further possible projects and experiments in the use of AI technologies, with the blog post also stating:
This is not the end of AI features in Second Life—we’re using this moment to regroup and plan for future development … We are actively and cautiously experimenting with other AI technologies to enhance Second Life’s creative potential, performance, and immersion. The insights from this project are already helping to inform future efforts.
For further information, please refer to the official blog post, which includes a short-term FAQ.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
Linden Labs caved in to the AI doom and gloomers, and canceled their AI avatars feature, otherwise known as AI Character Designer, and I am very very very pissed off at LL for this absolutely stupid decision. After being a very active user of SL for 18 years this makes me seriously reconsider if SL is even the right place for me anymore. LL used to be a forward thinking company, but now it has turned into a company pandering to the fear mongers and backwards minded people of the world. AI is here to stay, if LL is not going to be part of that change in the world, they will be left far behind by other apps that properly embrace this future. As of now I plan to cancel my premium plus and premium memberships I have on this and one other avatar, and won’t likely be spending much if any money in SL from this point and moving into the future. Over the years I am sure I spent many 10s of thousands of USD in SL, but from this point forward LL has at least lost one of it’s very supportative and well paying members. I might log into SL from time to time, but won’t be much involved in it and certainly won’t be buying stuff in it. I will be investing my time and money into forward thinking virtual worlds that support AI and current day technology innovations. I am also changing my in world profile of this avatar to include this what I wrote here. It was fun for a lot of years, but no longer does SL offer anything that can hold my interest or attention since AL avatars won’t be part of the SL experience.
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