Users subscribed to Character.AI’s $10 plan can now access the group chat for feedback and improvements, before public release.
Chatbot startup Character.AI is launching a new group chat feature for subscribers. The firm, backed by venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), has introduced a group chat where the app’s users and friends can simultaneously converse with multiple AI characters.
Character Group Chat Helps Users Collaborate with AI
Character.AI is a chatbot platform that allows users to customize AI companions with specific personalities. The new Character Group Chat lets users start group chats with select AI characters or introduce humans if preferred. Character.AI hopes that the group chat will simplify the process of collaborating, creating, and conversing with humans and AI bots.
Users can create a group chat for friends interested in a particular theme, such as gaming, books, or travel. Users can then add an AI companion to the chat to provide some expertise or amplify the conversation.
The new group chat feature from Character.AI will initially require a subscription. For now, the firm will only offer the feature to its C.AI+ subscribers for feedback and necessary improvement. This plan allows users to enjoy quicker message generation, skip waiting rooms, and access an exclusive community channel for support, at $9.99 per month. Character.AI says it intends to allow access to the general public a little later, but did not provide a timeline. The company also said access will initially be restricted to mobile devices on Android and iOS. Nonetheless, there are plans for a web rollout.
On the group chat, Character offers AI scientist characters like Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and Marie Curie. Subscribers can also access gods in Greek mythology, including Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades.
Group Chat Features from Other Providers
Character AI’s new group chat is similar to a Snapchat feature. Users can add Snapchat’s My AI chatbot to a conversation with a friend by typing “@myai” in the chat, along with a message for the bot. Also, Meta Platforms introduced an AI chatbot it describes as an “advanced conversational assistant” to offer users quick responses with real-time data, and generate images from text prompts within seconds. Called Meta AI, the assistant can be added to a group chat to help people plan trips or answer general questions.
Last month, Meta launched AI characters based on celebrities from music, sports, reality TV, and social media. Some of these characters include Tom Brady, Paris Hilton, Charli D’Amelio, Kendall Jenner, Snoop Dogg, and Mr Beast.
Character Is a Unicorn
Character AI hit unicorn status in March after a $150 million Series A funding round. The company was only launched less than two years earlier by former Google employees Daniel De Freitas and Noam Shazeer.
Following its beta launch last September, Character AI hit 100 million monthly visits in 2 months and recorded more than 2 billion messages by March. While the first 1 billion messages took four months, the next billion only took a month. Users have also created millions of characters, even though the company launched with less than 100.
Character AI is now seeking funding to push the company’s valuation over $5 billion. People familiar with the matter hinted that the company’s funding discussions could even push the valuation up to $10 billion.
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