Link: Google Hires Character.AI Cofounders and Licenses Its Models — The Information

Google has agreed to license chatbot technology from Character.AI and will hire the company's co-founders and several of its researchers. The buyout will be at a valuation of $88 per share, well above Character’s 2023 Series A valuation. This move returns Character’s co-founders, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, to Google, having left the tech giant in 2021.

Character’s legal head Dom Perella will take on the interim CEO role and the company will search for a permanent CEO. Approximately 30 Character employees specializing in AI will transition to Google to work on its Gemini AI project. Furthermore, Character plans to shift towards open-source models from Meta Platforms, forsaking its original in-house models.

This agreement follows the pattern set by AI startups Adept and Inflection, which have sold themselves to Amazon and Microsoft despite their recent capital raises. However, returns for investors are far from guaranteed in these deals, which draws the attention of antitrust watchdogs. For example, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating the Microsoft-Inflection deal.

Character, a provider of personalized chatbot experiences built around fictional and historical characters, will explore partnerships with other tech firms to offset prohibitive AI training costs and cultivate a broader clientele. Google has frequently supported Character, contributing cloud computing services and investment via convertible notes. To date, Character has raised over $150 million from investors. #

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Yoooo, this is a quick note on a link that made me go, WTF? Find all past links here.