Create your „personal companion“ with Character AI

Create your „personal companion“ with Character AI

San Francisco 3/25/12023

Character.AI, an AI chatbot provider founded by former Google employees, said it has closed a $150 million funding round that values the 16-month-old startup at $1 billion.

The round, led by Andreessen Horowitz, will allow Character.AI to expand its 22-person team and computing capabilities to create a „more sophisticated model,“ it said.

The company, which is about to sell, says its language model and technology allow users to create personalized AI „companions“ with their own personalities and values.

On its website, it offers a variety of AI chatbots to converse with, including virtual versions of Queen Elizabeth, Elon Musk, William Shakespeare, and more.

Character.AI’s platform has seen a four-fold increase in website visits in two months, totaling nearly 100 million visits per month.

Background:

Character was founded in 2021 by former Google researchers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas. Both previously worked on the tech giant’s AI conversational technology LaMDA. Shazeer told the NYT that the startup will soon secure additional funding from other „strategic partners.“

The company may also consider testing a premium subscription or some other type of model to charge users. As part of the agreement, Andreessen Horowitz’s general partner, Sarah Wang, will join Character’s board of directors.
Wang said the startup’s technology could support a variety of uses beyond chatbots.