SL News – Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld

LL announce a pause in the current SL AI character designer project

Posted on July 31, 2025August 7, 2025 by Inara Pey

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.

LL completes Tilia sale to Thunes: What you need to know

Posted on June 4, 2025July 25, 2025 by Inara Pey

Update: Linden Lab has now blogged on the change-over – see: A New Chapter: Tilia Joins Global Payments Leader Thunes, together with a FAQ. I have further updated this piece to include details on user data security, as given by Brad Oberwager in April 2024, as a result of being was on this subject.

On Thursday, 29th, 2025, Linden Lab Executive Chair Brad Oberwager and members of his team held a Zoom call with bloggers and creators to provide an update on the acquisition of Tilia.io, the all-in-one payments platform the Lab launched, and which handles payments processing, USD account balances, etc., for Second Life, to Singapore-based Thunes, based business-2-business (B2B) payments infrastructure firm.

The following is a summary of the core points of the discussion, some of which re-trod the subject of account security, as I’ve already covered in Linden Lab: keeping your Second Life account safe.

Acquisition and Change-Over

The acquisition is due to complete on Wednesday, June 4th, 2025.
On this date, there will a series of steps taken by both Linden Lab and Thunes to complete the change-over.
Perhaps most notably, Second Life web pages referencing Tilia Inc., will instead reference Thunes Financial Services LLC, and the Tilia website will be rebranded.
While there are chances of some hiccups given the back-end complexity of the change, these should be minimal, and the SL support teams will be ready to help any users who may experience issues.
In short: “Don’t Panic” when/if you see the changes happening.

What This Immediately Means to Users

For the majority of users, there should be no visible difference to the processes of buying L$ or cashing-out.

User Data Security: An important point to note with the acquisition of Tilia is that Second Life user data is not changing hands.
- Tilia will have new owners and will be renamed, but the lock-down of Second Life user data resides in two places: Tilia (for financial information) and Second Life (actual user data).
- As a financial services company, Thunes is required to keep financial data as secure as it currently is with Tilia, and the data will not be removed from the current Tilia systems and moved elsewhere.
There will be no changes in existing fees charged by the Lab for cashing-out or buying L$.
No-one needs to create an account with Thunes to keep buying L$ or cashing-out, etc.
There will be no change in how support issues relating to finances are handled: users will continue to deal with the Lab’s own billing support team. you will not have to deal with Thunes directly.
Linden Lab will continue to manage the LindeX, and nothing will be changing on this front.
However:
- Following the change-over, users may be required to acknowledge the change via a check-box the first time they engage with the rebranded service.
- Some users may have to re-submit information such as their credit card details or re-confirm a payment account as a result of the change-over.

What It Means Going Forward

Potentially more methods by which to receive payments from Second Life (e.g. to different accounts, through different services, etc.) or by which to purchase L$ – Thunes supports pay-outs across 130+ countries and 320+ payment methods globally.
It is possible that as new payment methods are added to Second Life, they may be subject to increased fees as a result of charges made by the payment method.
- To aid in understanding of fees charged, the Lab will start to provide a breakdown: how much they are charging & how much of that due to the payment method. This is to allow users to decide whether they wish to use a newer payment method, which might offer certain advantages (e.g. faster processing), or not.
LL has a 5-year agreement with Thunes to prevent Thunes forcing increases on existing services provided to LL (although this obviously does not prevent LL making changes to fees should they need to).
Much better fraud controls and investigation, leveraging Thunes own capabilities as well as LL’s support team.

Benefits to Linden Lab

The company is no longer engaged in trying to operate and maintain what is essentially a fintech company, with all the costs involved therein.
Ability for management to focus solely on building and improving Second Life.
The payments team can be focused solely on Second Life, rather than having to also focus on regulatory requirements and deal with multiple payment services, etc., as these will now be the responsibility for Thunes to manage.

Linden Lab: keeping your Second Life account safe

Posted on May 23, 2025July 25, 2025 by Inara Pey

One of the things that we’re trying to do is making the Second Life financial transactions easier for creators and buyers. We’re doing more and more things to streamline systems, to give real-time payments … The bad news is that when you start to do these really good things for folks, you become a target, and bad people try really hard to take over other people’s accounts.

– Linden Lab Executive Chairman, Brad Oberwager, May 22nd, 2025.

These words formed comments by Linden Lab Executive Chairman Brad Oberwager during a Zoom call to bloggers and operators of large in-world Groups held on May 22nd, 2025. The call was held ahead of an official blog post on the matter of account security in the face of growing attempts by bad actors to try to take over people’s Second Life accounts and which has coincided with efforts to make it easier for users to process credit (cash-out) from SL (see: Your Account, Your World: Keep It Safe, published on May 23rd, 2025).

Whilst the official blog post should be read in and of itself, in keeping with the Lab’s request:

This article repeats the guidance given there, hopefully adding some additional context as provided / suggested during the Zoom call.
Offers a very brief summary / insight of some of the additional steps Linden Lab is taking in order to try to reduce the risks of accounts being compromised / taken over, and people losing money, beyond those mentioned in he official blog post.

Basic Account Security

Remember: your account name is public information. It is only your password that is protecting your account.
Never give out your password to anyone in SL, no matter how well you think you know them, or how helpful they appear to be; confidence tricking is part and parcel of the phisher’s social engineering toolset.
Do not use the same password across multiple accounts – including third-party sites you associate with your Second Life account (e.g. e-mail, Discord, etc.).
- Phishers may not be “just” interested in your Second Life account; they many potentially have as much interest in where the account might lead – your e-mail contacts, other accounts you use, etc., – as they are in taking your L$.
Use a strong, unique password – at least 12 characters long, mixing upper and lower case, numbers and symbols.
Consider using a passphrase rather than a password: these can be harder to glean or guess.
Use LL’s Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): yes, it’s not as perfect as it could be, and not everyone can use it. But if you can, please enable it. The added security far outweighs inconvenience of finding your account has been compromised and you are locked out of SL as a result while LL investigate.

Links and Downloads

Don’t click on links appearing in group chats, IMs, local chat, third-party sites used in association with SL (e.g. Discord, Flickr or similar) or which arrive unsolicited, and/or which offer you the chance to download a viewer, or go to a website for “special deals”, etc.
- Similarly, be wary of ill-defined links within avatar profiles and check those that provide a URL (e.g. does a link apparently for the Marketplace actually give the correct URL, or does it have odd letters – “mmarketplace” instead of “marketplace”, for example).
- Do not enter your account details on any website a link has directed you to, no matter how “official” looking. Remember, SL uses single sign-on, so you should not be asked for credentials if already logged-on.
Only download viewers from either the SL official viewer download page (e.g. by clicking the option on the right of your Account Dashboard), or by navigating yourself to the viewer’s website using the links within the Third-Party Viewer Directory. Never download a viewer via any other link (no matter how apparently trustworthy the source of the link).

Money

Never try to obtain Linden anywhere other than the LindeX or through the Buy L$ button in the viewer.
Don’t fall for offers of “discount” L$ purchased via external services such as Venmo or PayPal; these are scam activities and can result in you both losing money and access to your SL account.

Staying Alert and Taking Action

Staying Alert:

All of the above can happen at any time, so treat all offers of L$, unsolicited download suggestions / links, “promotional” offers for L$, etc., as suspicious, no matter who / where they come from.
Friends and acquaintances can have their account compromised just like anyone else – so just because you “know” the account sending you a link / offering to log-in to your account to “help” you with something, doesn’t what is being sent / suggested is safe.
As the old truism goes: if something sounds too good to be true (and involves anything to do with account access, money, etc.) – it probably is.

If your account is comprised:

Change your password, if you can still access your account, and if you have not done so (and can), enable MFA.
Report the situation to Linden Lab.
Accept the fact that the safest way to secure your information is for the Lab to lock your account for a time, and you may have to provide proof of identity before you regain control of it.
Do not revert any password set for your account by LL back to a previously used password. Remember, any previously-compromised password remains compromised even after your account has been reset.

I’ll give you an example of how trusting people are: someone gets their account taken over. We stop their account. They come back. We verify it’s them. We change their password to something complicated – because their password was “Potato1”. What do they do? The next day, they change it back to “Potato1”. And then they get their account taken over again.

– Linden Lab Executive Chairman, Brad Oberwager, May 22nd, 2025

What the Lab Is and Will be Doing

Linden Lab has been moving to address problems of account take-overs in a number of ways, some of which will are already in place or will be coming into use soon, as per the official blog post. In addition, further changes to help protect accounts are either in active development or are being considered. These include the following.

Additional Protections / Requirements When Processing Credit (Cashing Out)

Enforced MFA when processing credit (cashing-out) from Second Life. If you are a creator or similar, wanting to convert L$ to fiat currency and take it out of Second Life as real-time payments, you will be required to use MFA.
- The same may be required for those buying “large sums” of L$.
Re-introducing delays in processing credit if:
- The cashing-out account has seen a password change ahead of the process credit request.
- The external receiving account has been changed or the pay-out method updated.
- There has been an IP address change for the account logging-in (not clear on how dynamic IPs will be handed with this).
Investigating specific options for account safety and verification where cashing-out very large sums are concerned (the example was in terms of tens of thousands of dollars).

MFA and Secure Log-in Enhancements

Linden Lab is additionally looking to:

Enhancing the multi-factor authentication (MFA) toolset to make it easier for more people to use.
Possibly adding passkey support to MFA.
Implementing log-in from trusted services (e.g. Google).

However, it was noted that some of this work will take time to complete.

Additional Improvements

These are options LL is either engaged in implementing, or considering (note: this list is not exhaustive in terms of the Zoom discussion, but reflects those things indicated as being pursued / investigated):

URL Links in Group chats, IMs, etc.:
- Currently being scoped for inclusion in the viewer: adding a pop-up warning highlighting the risks when a user clicks on a link in an IM, Group chat, etc. This is being done in preference to disabling all such links, as it has been recognised there are legitimate use-cases for providing URL links.
- Under investigation: providing the means for Group owners (/officers?) to be able to remove links from their Group chats.
Log-in warning: possibly add a log-in warning to remind people not to give their passwords out, share their account etc., with a required action to remove it. However, this is not currently viewed as optimal, due to the level of irritation / upset it would cause.
Updating interactions with Tilia to ensure greater account security. More to come on this from the Lab / in this blog in the near future.

Conclusion

Account take-over is a real threat within Second Life. While LL is attempting to minimise the risk of user accounts being compromised and money being taken, we all have a responsibility to ensure we keep our credentials as secure as possible, and that we all take a common sense approach to minimising the risks of having our accounts compromised. As such, if you are not already doing so, please do take the recommendations in the first part of this article – and in the Lab’s own blog post – seriously, and act on them.

Lab launches Creator Partnership Programme

Posted on April 24, 2025April 24, 2025 by Inara Pey

On Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025, Linden Lab announced the launch of the Second Life Creator Partnership Programme, an imitative intended to allow creators in Second Life “play a central role in shaping the future of Second Life”, through a collaboration with the Lab to co-create content and experiences aimed at both new and existing users of the Second Life platform.

The Creator Partnership follows on a number of recent collaborations between the Lab and various creators / groups in Second Life (e.g. MadPea, Seraphim) and perhaps most notably, on the heels of the new Avatar Welcome Packs.

*The Avatar Welcome Packs are contained within the System Library, accessed via Inventory*

The latter were rolled out quietly recently (although LL are promising to provide more details in the near future), and feature assorted “lite” and “basic” female and heads and bodies, together with a range of accessories and clothing, again from recognised creators (e.g. Lelutka, Addams, MeshBody, Velour).

I’ll actually have more on them in an upcoming post, but for now, the curious who may not be aware of them can find them in the System Library within their inventory.

Through the newly-announced Creator Partnership programme, Linden Lab is looking to work with creators on – initially – three core areas:

Welcome Packs: building on the approach taken with the aforementioned Avatar Welcome Packs, these are aimed specifically at incoming new users in order to help get them started on their Second Life. Such packs could comprises non-human Avtar Packs; Clothing and Accessory Packs; Home furnishing Packs, and similar.

The Lab notes these packs could be distributed through newcomer-friendly areas inworld (possibly for limited time frames), as well as on the Marketplace or Viewer. But all Welcome Pack content should be optimised for new community members not yet familiar with all the intricacies of Second Life.

Community Perks: the Lab is also hoping to improve the community perks for more established residents. These might include: enhanced paid membership perks; free seasonal and special giveaways; expansion of the Mobile Daily Rewards initiative to include virtual gift; and future programs and promotions that include virtual perks and prizes.

Community Gateways: the Lab is hoping to partner with talented creators of high-quality in-world experiences which can feature as newcomer-friendly destinations available from Community Gateways and the like.

In return for their involvement, participating creators have the opportunity to introduce their brand and content to a wider and loyal audience, with the potential for inclusion in major on-boarding and promotion campaigns, together with the potential to have strategic impact on improving Second Life by working hand-in-hand with Linden Lab.

We’re looking to expand our community collaborations even further – and we invite creators of all types to help us build and improve the next generation of Second Life new user experiences and beyond. Whether you’re a fashion designer, avatar builder, home goods creator, experience developer, or just someone with a standout idea—we want to hear from you.

– Linden Lab blog post

How to Get involved

Submit your proposal using the Creator Partnership Program Inquiry Form.
Sign up to receive an invitation to join an upcoming Zoom call with Linden Lab leadership to learn more and ask your questions directly.

Further information via the official blog post.

Linden Dollar Buy fees reduced to US $0.01 for 50 hours

Posted on April 16, 2025 by Inara Pey

On Wednesday, April 16th, 2025, Linden Lab announced that Linden Dollar buy fees are reduced to US $0.01 per transaction for all Second Life users in a “limited-time offer”.

When and What

Offer commenced: 12:30 SLT on Wednesday, April 16th, 2025.
Offer ends: 14:30 SLT on Friday, April 18th, 2025.
Offer duration 50 hours.
Any purchase of Linden Dollars made during this period (within the required trading limits), whether through an Instant (Market) or Best Rate (Limited) Buy (https://secondlife.com/my/lindex/buy.php) or through the viewer (Buy L$, top right of the viewer window), will incur a transaction (Buy) fee of just US $0.01.
Normal L$ Sell fees still apply.

*The limited-time L$ Buy fee offer applies to in-viewer L$ purchased and both Instant and Best Rate buy via your Second Life dashboard*

From the official blog post:

Times are tough for a lot of people, so we’ve come up with one way to make things a little easier: Second Life is launching a special LindeX limited-time offer – a chance to make Linden Dollar (L$) Buy fees nearly disappear for a limited time!

While the global economy wrestles with rising tariffs and tense trade talks, we’re responding with a bold, Resident-first promotion: we’re charging just a penny for your LindeX buy fees for the next 2 days. We’re committed to you – our Residents – through these challenging times, and we will continue to stand by you as we have over the past 22 years.

For further information, please refer to the official blog post.

Linden Lab announces AI Town Hall with Philip Rosedale

Posted on April 15, 2025April 20, 2025 by Inara Pey

During the March 2025 Community Round Table / Town Hall meeting (which I have summarised here, complete with the official video of the event†), there was a peaceful demonstration by some Second Life users on the use of AI / generative AI within the platform. Such concerns have also been formulated elsewhere, such as this document outlining objections to AI on the Feedback Portal.

At the time of that meeting, Lab CTO, Philip Rosedale stated the company would look to hold an open Town Hall meeting to discuss concerns about AI, together with the opportunities it might present, and on community values around the use / presentation of AI in Second Life.

On Monday, April 14th, 2025, the Lab officially announced the event, now entitled Second Life Town Hall on AI & the Future of Our Virtual Community.

Meeting Date, Time and Location

Date and Time: Friday, April 18th, 2025, commencing at 12:30 SLT.
Venue:
- Town Hall 1: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Town Hall Island1/252/5/26
- Town Hall 2: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Town Hall Island2/6/7/26
- Town Hall 3: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Town Hall Island3/249/252/26

Meeting Purpose

To quote from the official blog post:

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly present in both our physical and virtual worlds, the Second Life community is coming together for a Special Town Hall event to explore its evolving role and impact within our shared metaverse.

This special event will include an open and interactive conversation focused on the opportunities, concerns, and community values surrounding AI in Second Life. We’ll be diving into topics that matter deeply to residents—from identity and authenticity to economic impact, creative ownership, and the future of social interaction.

This event will be hosted by Second Life founder Philip Rosedale, who will facilitate a lively discussion with the community on all-things-AI.

Topics under consideration for discussion are listed as:

How AI-generated avatars may affect identity and trust in social spaces
Generative AI and the Second Life creative economy.
Emotional manipulation, consent, and transparency with AI-driven characters
Use of AI in customer support and other non-in-world services
Balancing creative opportunities and responsible use of emerging AI tools

Participation

The meeting is open to all Second Life users and will – I presume, as there was no direct mention of this in the official announcement when I read it – be livestreamed. Direct participation in the event is being offered in one of two ways:

Those who have questions / comments / thoughts on the potential / current use of AI in Second Life can submit such questions or comments for consideration during the event via this form.
Those wishing to make an initial brief presentation or give prepared comments on the subject should submit a request via this form.

†While they are not officially representative of the Lab or these meetings, please note that I attempt to provide summaries of meeting such as these, and for a number of user group session within these pages.

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Tag: SL News

LL announce a pause in the current SL AI character designer project

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.