If you’re serious about understanding AI, you must spot- and not dismiss- trends that may seem odd to you. Like the astonishing popularity of Character.AI. Character AI allows users to create and chat with AI personas. It's not just a niche product - it's exploding: • 206 million monthly visits • 9 million daily active users • Average session time of 29 minutes Google just struck a major deal with Character AI, reportedly paying $3 billion to license their technology and hire key staff. Why is a "chatbot roleplay" site so valuable? Because it points to the future of AI - deeply personalized, engaging interactions that blur the lines between human and artificial intelligence. If you're not paying attention to trends that seem odd to you, you may be missing crucial signals about where the technology is headed.
Only the beginning with Character.AI, as adoption and dynamics develop it will make platforms like Instagram seem increasingly one dimensional.
Conor Grennan you used the words “personalised” and “engaging” but I think you forgot “addictive”. AI has learned a lot from its social media upbringing.
Great insights Conor Grennan It's interesting when you peek under the hood a bit at character.ai. Over 50% of users are in 18-24 age bracket. 75% are basically under the age of 35. The implications of this on UX design for AI are worth paying attention to. These target audiences in particular seem very comfortable in engaging in extended interactions with personas that align with their interests even if they are AI driven. Engineering this alignment is likely to be an important source of future competitive advantage for AI developers that pay attention to it now.
Interesting times! The rise of Character.AI isn't just a trend—it's a signal of where AI is headed: towards deeply immersive and personalized experiences that challenge our understanding of human-machine interaction. The Google deal highlights the strategic importance of this shift. As AI blurs the lines between technology and companionship, the possibilities for its impact on our lives are expanding in ways we’re only beginning to grasp.
I'm seeing this as well. I heard a well-respected technology leader in the real estate space significantly downplay the role / impact of AI within RE recently. His primary argument was that chatbots are terrible and nobody likes them, his comments received many "knowing" laughs from the audience. Meanwhile, people are literally falling in love with characters on character.ai, using it for therapy, coaching, and mentorship. When you consider developments happening around memory, voice capabilities, real-time video avatars, agents, etc., etc., it's easy to see that this is only the beginning and will impact every facet of our lives in some way.
Great post, Conor Grennan! I had an interesting discussion at a town library, where I was speaking to the local community a few weeks ago. The room was split between Gen Z/early millennials (many them use Character AI) and late millennials ++ (most of them had no clue and became rather worried when I mentioned about the popularity of “psychologists” on the platform)… There are lots of great stories about how Character AI is helping combat loneliness. On the other hand, there are a whole bunch of characters who are not expert “psychologists” but are advising young ones. Both exciting and concerning!!🤷♀️
This is a really interesting use case, imagine if students could chat with AI personas to help them better understand concepts (extend learning), a researcher has deep chats with a persona about a research topic, a patient can chat about their condition or have a persona as a coach. So many ways this can go.
Conor Grennan Interesting. I need to check this out Other than the obvious, is there anything else you've used this for to help you out?
Insightful observation on AI's personalized future through Character.AI's success.
AI in Higher Ed Keynote Speaker • 30 Years teaching composition and literature • AI Pedagogy and practical implementation.
1yI’ve been using it in my lot courses since they started. I make my students build out minor characters from our readings.