Role-playing with AI (1 of 2): Character.ai raised at $1B valuation
Even though the broader tech sector is facing a capital winter, investment activities in artificial intelligence have remained hot. According to the Financial Times and the Newcomer, Character.ai has raised $200 to $250 million at a $1B valuation from Andreessen Horowitz. What amazes me is that they are only a 6-month-old startup. There’s a real gold rush in the AI space.
In terms of their product, Character.ai has the beta version available here. You don’t have to log in or signup to use it. My guess is that Character.ai is offering its bots for free to observe how people are interacting with the bots. We are still in the early stages of exploring how humans interact with AI (Large Language models, to be exact). Startups that can gather and explore these insights would be the first in building AI-native applications.
Character.ai’s website offers many different chatbots you can play with, from Elon Musk to Socrates.
I’ve tried the Elon bot. The bot loves to brag about its wealth and status. It feels more like a generic, rude rich guy than Elon. Given that the product is still in beta, I’d expect the product and the bots to become more mature and realistic over time. Please give it a try since it doesn’t require an account, and tell me your experiences in the comment section below.
In the next article, I’ll talk about how to role-play with ChatGPT. Stay tuned for it!