What could happen if AI intervened in conversations between flesh-and-blood humans? This is the proposal from the company Character.AI, which is developing a feature called “Character Group Chat”.
ChatGPT can help create a podcast, answer many questions or even, more strangely, control a sex toy. It is one of the most versatile AI models among textual generative models. However, the only interactions you can have with it are alone, face to face with your PC or with your smartphone.
On the other hand, it is impossible for him to mime a conversation with several speakers. This is where Character.AI wants to take this niche, by offering its users the opportunity to simulate a group conversation between AI and real humans.
Mixed AI-human groups
Character Group Chat is therefore a virtual platform on which users can create discussion groups by mixing human friends and virtual companions animated by AI. The interest? Build friendly ties or collaborate in a professional setting, for example, while enjoying the presence of virtual characters.
Existing models are already present, inspired by famous figures: Stephen Hawking, Marie Curie or Albert Einstein, for the best known. Others, however, come from the world of mythology such as Poseidon, Zeus or Hades. This functionality can certainly be entertaining, but it remains difficult to imagine a truly pragmatic use of it.
Character.AI versus the competition
However, Character.AI is not the only one to have detected the potential of using chatbots in multi-person conversations. Meta, for example, already offers a series of AI bots for WhatsApp and Instagram. The Snapchat application also has the right to its virtual companion, simply called My AI.
Despite this strong competition, Character.AI had the courage to stand up to the giants in the field. It managed to raise a rather substantial sum of $150 million in the Series A stage. This is crucial when launching a start-up, since it represents the moment which occurs just after seeding. of the project, and it is used to hire more employees and optimize the product.
Obviously, this won’t be free. The group chat feature will first be available to subscribers of c.ai+, the company’s monthly subscription plan. Its price: $9.99 per month. In 6 days, the application has already been downloaded more than 500,000 times on iOS and Android. But will people be willing to pay such a price to benefit from this somewhat gimmicky function?
Source : TechCrunch
1