Google intends to invest in Character AI chatbot firm – Planning alliance between Google and Character AI

There are reports that Google, a division of Alphabet Inc., is in advanced talks to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Character.AI, a startup developing chatbot using artificial intelligence. Reuters claims that this investment has the potential to greatly increase Character.AI’s capacity to improve AI model training and satisfy rising consumer demand.

Strengthening a current alliance

Morality.Tensor Processing Units and Google cloud services are already used by AI for model training. This alliance is expected to be further strengthened by the proposed investment, which might take the form of convertible notes. But Google and Character, too.Requests for comment on these talks have not received a response from AI.

Character was founded by Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, two former Google workers.By enabling consumers to communicate with virtual representations of celebrities and anime characters, AI has gained notoriety. Its platform also makes it possible to create AI helpers and chatbots that are customised. Although the service is free, there is a $9.99 monthly membership option available for priority access to chatbots.

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Website traffic and demographic reach

Morality.According to Similarweb, the 18–24 age range is particularly drawn to AI, making up over 60% of its website traffic. This market is essential to the company’s reputation as a supplier of interesting AI companions, setting it apart from rivals like Google’s Bard and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Within the first half of the year after its debut, Character.AI’s website had an incredible 100 million monthly views. Additionally, the business is negotiating with venture capital investors for equity investment, which may put its valuation above $5 billion. It secured $150 million in fundraising earlier in March under the leadership of Andreessen Horowitz, valuing the business at $1 billion.

Google’s investment plan in AI

Google could spend money on Character.AI is a part of a larger trend in which big cloud computing providers, such as Microsoft and Amazon, strategically engage in AI-related businesses. In the quickly developing fields of AI model development and consumer services, these investments frequently promote the usage of certain cloud services or hardware.

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Authorities have taken note of this trend of internet giants funding AI companies. Chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission Lina Khan has stated that the agency is looking for any anti-competitive activity related to these transactions.

Source:
https://readwrite.com/google-plans-to-invest-in-ai-chatbot-startup-character-ai/

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