The availability of free two-way voice calls on Character.AI’s app has come following OpenAI’s announcement that the ChatGPT maker’s rollout of the advanced voice mode of its latest model, GPT-4o, is delayed by one month.
Artificial Intelligence chatbot startup Character.AI said 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.
The 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 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 customised 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 reportedly in talks to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Character.AI last year.
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