Chatbot maker Character.ai has reportedly held exploratory talks with both Meta and Elon Musk's xAI to discuss potential partnerships.
The company has discussed collaborating with both companies on pre-training and developing AI models, the Financial Times reported on Friday, May 24.
The talks are reportedly focused on research, not an acquisition, and no agreement has been reached.
According to the report, Character.ai uses large-scale language models (LLMs) to develop chatbots that can converse in the style of different personas.
The talks with Meta and xAI reportedly come at a time when the tech giant is seeking to partner with various startups in the AI space to develop cutting-edge technologies.
At the same time, the report said technology companies are wary of acquiring these startups due to concerns about possible regulatory action in jurisdictions around the world.
Character.ai was made publicly available in 2022. When the company announced the introduction of its next-generation web platform in April, it said in a blog post that it aims to deliver “personalized AI for every moment of your day.”
The company added: “Our teams continue on our mission to empower all with AGI and we look forward to continuing our journey together. [artificial general intelligence]. “
xAI, one of the companies Character.ai is reportedly in talks with, will release a chatbot called Grok in November 2023, which it describes as “spicy” and “rebellious.”
“Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious nature, so if you don't like humor, please don't use him,” the company wrote on its website at the time.
On Sunday (May 26), xAI announced it had raised $60 million in a Series B funding round to bring its first product to market, build advanced infrastructure, and accelerate research and development (R&D).
Meta will introduce 28 new AI-powered personas in September 2023, and said each new AI will have its own personality and interests.
“We've built an AI that has more personality, opinions, interests and is more fun to interact with,” the company said in a blog post at the time.
Meta said in April that capital spending for its AI and metaverse development division, Reality Labs, would be in the range of $35 billion to $40 billion by the end of 2024.
