In the digital space, much of the ongoing conversation is around how industries are going to react to the ongoing impact of artificial intelligence (AI). Technically speaking, it requires less manpower and is cheaper for most industries, but the quality varies greatly, and it hurts actual people for their jobs to be largely replaced. That has led to several strikes and lawsuits against AI as there is not a lot of existing legislation around what these companies behind AI can and cannot do. However, the industry has continued to expand and grow more competitive as more specific ideas come onto the market.
Character AI is one of these softwares. Former Google engineers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas founded it in 2021. It boasts a lot of fan-favorite characters including characters from popular film and television as well as real-life actors. These characters are both provided in-app by the developers and by users who get the opportunity to create their own bots of characters. Users can talk to the characters, and it aims to have realistic dynamics as the character/person would have based on the information provided by the person who created the bot.
In their statement about their purpose, Character AI’s leadership team wrote that they are “dedicated to revolutionizing the way we interact with technology by developing advanced artificial intelligence systems that understand and emulate human-like conversations. Their core mission is to create seamless, engaging, and personalized communication experiences between users and AI-powered applications, bridging the gap between technology and human connection.”
Like most of its predecessors and other softwares that are doing related work, such as ChatGPT, this software uniquely captures young people’s attention and time. This software boasted that in their first six months, 60 percent of the 100 million people who have visited the website in the past month are in the age range of 18-24. That contrasts with more traditional media, such as television, that have been struggling to capture the attention of the younger demographic.
Yet, the impact does not stop at influencing the younger generation. This past March, Character AI earned $150 million in funding and had a $1 billion evaluation. This money comes not only from its investors during their fundraising but also from the premium subscription services which deviate from the free initial service and cost $9.99 a month. Users who choose this subscription can get faster and better access to their chatbots.
Google plans to invest in the chatbot, although the finalized idea is still in the works, as a part of their initiative to invest in AI. Although it is not often discussed, over the past decade, they have invested over $200 billion in AI and the acquisition and investment into AI softwares. Throughout this process, they use their own custom chip for handling AI, the Tensor Processing Unit. Currently, they have not made major strides in their progress and successes in AI as far as the public knows, but these more major moves during this time period could pay off.
Currently, Google’s larger statement on the use of AI in the internet space reads, “We will strive to make high-quality and accurate information readily available using AI, while continuing to respect cultural, social, and legal norms in the countries where we operate.” A balance between gaining information and not losing morality and ethics is one that many companies are going for as they venture further into AI.
If Google does continue to invest in AI, then the software will likely improve far beyond what consumers have seen thus far. As always, as consumers the general public must support AI software that does not steal information from others and makes statements on their own actions as well as software that they find genuinely interesting and engaging. AI will be a major part of the future, but the role it plays all depends on what happens in the years to come.
