Teaching AI characters when to shut up: the hardest part of building a group chat

The hardest part of building Advizory wasn't getting the characters to talk. It was getting them to stop.

Early on, every character answered every message with a thoughtful paragraph. It felt like a panel interview, not a group chat.

Real group chats are messy: someone replies "lol", someone ignores you, two people start arguing and forget you exist. So we taught the cast a few things:

• Not everyone has to answer. Sometimes silence is the right move.

• Short is fine. The one-word reply is often the funniest one.

• Talk to each other, not just to the person who asked.

• Read the room: a serious question gets serious answers, a silly one gets chaos.

Fewer replies made it feel a lot more alive.

Builders: what's the thing you had to teach your product NOT to do?