AI chatbot startup Character.AI launches new calls feature

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(Reuters) – Artificial Intelligence chatbot startup Character.AI said on Thursday it has launched a calls feature that allows users to have voice conversations with their AI characters, ratcheting up efforts to compete with rivals including OpenAI.

AI-boom has prompted startups to release new features to their chatbots as competitors such as Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Google and Amazon.com-backed Anthropic are looking to gain market share by engaging new users.

The availability of free two-way voice calls on Character.AI’s app has come following OpenAI’s announcement on Tuesday that the ChatGPT maker’s rollout of the advanced voice mode of its latest model GPT-4o is delayed by one month.

Character.AI, co-founded by Noam Shazeer, who helped invent “transformer” AI architecture while at Google that underpins systems like Gemini and ChatGPT, enables users to create customized AI companions with specific personalities and values.

The Menlo Park, California-based startup said the new calls feature prompted more than 20 million calls from over 3 million unique users in its early rollout, suggesting a strong engagement.

Character.AI launched Character Voice, a suite of features that allows users to hear characters speaking to them in one-on-one chats, for all users in March.

Alphabet’s Google was in talks to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Character.AI last year, two sources briefed on the matter had told Reuters.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)