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Character AI, The startup, which lets users chat with a variety of AI-powered characters, is now testing games on desktop and mobile web apps to increase engagement on its platform.
The games are available to paid subscribers of Character AI and a limited number of users on the free plan. For this initial release, the company developed two games, Speakeasy and War of Words.
Users with access to the games can go to any character they’re chatting with in the browser and tap the new controller icon. Users can then play the games with available characters. The app shows users a pop-up to start a new conversation for games so that their previous conversation with that character remains the same.
In Speakeasy, users have to use the chatbot to say a certain word without using the five words listed. For example, if you force the bot to say “croissant” without using the listed words like dough, butter, bread, french, and flakes.
In War of Words, users have to duel with a character, and an AI judge decides who wins over five rounds.
Character AI said it’s the company’s way of making the service more fun.
“Our goal as an AI entertainment company is to find ways to do that Character.AI live more fun and fun. We are currently testing a feature that allows you to play games with your favorite characters while maintaining the immersive experience that users love,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Users already have their own symbols text-based games like this Space Adventure Game. However, the company is also trying to bring its own games to the platform.
Character AI then went through staff changes above co-founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas left for Google. The company hired a YouTube executive as chief product officerand Dominic Perella, the company’s general counsel, became interim CEO.
Perella told TechCrunch in December Character AI bills itself as an entertainment company. The introduction of games is a step that reinforces that image.
“While there are companies in the space focused on connecting humans with their AI companions, that’s not our intention at Character AI. What we really want to do is create a more useful entertainment platform. So as we grow and move towards the goal of people creating stories, sharing stories on our platform, we need to evolve our security practices to be first class,” he said.
platforms like YouTube, LinkedInand Netflix used games to increase engagement on their platforms. Character AI is probably taking the same route to get users to spend more time on the platform. According to analytics firm Sensor Tower, Character AI users Spend 98 minutes per day on the app.
last year, the company has added new safety features for teenagersincluding more prominent labels on AI characters to let users know they’re not real people once they’re part of the company numerous claims. The startup has also added a timeout notification for every 60 minutes a user stays in the app.
