Google might be working on creating artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots that can play a character while interacting with users. These character-focused chatbots can be modelled after a celebrity or be customised by users based on their imagination, according to the report. It is said that these chatbots will be powered by the tech giant’s in-house large language model (LLM) Gemini. Unlike the existing Gemini AI chatbot, these customisable bots are said to be designed to have conversations and not just to answer user queries.
Google Is Working on Character-Based AI Chatbots
According to a report by The Information (via 9to5Google), Google wants to build AI-based chatbots that can be a friend to people instead of a query-solving assistant. The publication stated that the company has been working on building these chatbots for a while now. These will be customisable AI bots “which could be modelled on celebrities or made by users.”
The report also highlights that Google could partner with social media influencers to create chatbots based on their personalities. These bots are said to be powered by Gemini, but it is currently unclear whether it would use the Gemini 1.5 Pro or Gemini 1.0 model. It is said to be a standalone project, and it is not being developed for a specific Google platform.
However, the report highlights that the company has discussed plans to eventually integrate the chatbots with YouTube.
Based on the details shared in the report, it appears that these chatbots could be similar to the AI characters made by Meta. The social media giant partnered with several popular influencers and celebrities such as Kendall Jenner, Charli D’Amelio, MrBeast, Snoop Dogg, Tom Brady, and more, and released their AI characters on the Messenger app. Similar chatbots are also used by recently launched social media platform Butterflies.
Character-based chatbots were popularised by the AI platform Character.ai, where users can create AI bots by adding a text prompt describing the character and its personality. The platform lets users interact with characters such as Sherlock Holmes, Tony Stark, Elon Musk, Batman, and more.
Apart from these, the platform also offers chatbots made for specific purpose such as a Writing Helper, Story Maker, Dating Coach, and others. Notably, Character.ai uses Google’s cloud services and Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) to train its AI models.