What the term means here In this channel's material, character-driven computing describes the design approach behind Portola's Tolan — an embodied AI alien companion. Rather than treating the AI as a neutral tool, Tolan is built around a character the user relates to, which shapes how people interact with the product. The episode's host frames it as a candidate new interface paradigm: interaction organized around a personality rather than around commands or feeds. [^8cb89dc1]