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AI character, a startup that allows users to chat with various AI-powered characters, is now testing games on its desktop and mobile web apps to increase engagement on its platform.
The games are available to paid subscribers of Character AI and a limited set of users on the free plan. For this initial release, the company developed two games, Speakeasy and War of Words.
Users who have access to the games can go to any of the characters that are chatting in the browser and touch the icon of the new controller. Users can then play games with existing characters. The app shows a pop-up to the user to start a new game chat so that their previous conversation with that character remains the same.
In Speakeasy, users have to get the chatbot to say a particular word without using five listed words. For example, if you have to make the bot say “croissant” without using list words such as pastry, butter, bake, French, and flaky.
In War of Words, users have to duel with the character, and an AI referee decides who won a particular round out of five rounds.
Character AI said this is 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 even more fun and entertaining experience. We are currently testing a feature that allows you to play with your favorite Characters, all while maintaining the immersive experience that users love,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Users already have their characters text-based games like this Space Adventure Game. However, the company is also trying to bring its own games to the platform.
The AI character went through personnel changes at the top later Co-founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas left for Google. The associated company a YouTube executive as the product managerand Dominic Perella, who was the general counsel of the company, became the interim CEO.
In December, Perella told TechCrunch that Character AI positions itself as an entertainment company. The introduction of games is a step that further strengthens that image.
“While there are companies in the space that are focused on connecting people to AI companies, that’s not what we’re going to do at Character AI. What we want to do is really create a much healthier entertainment platform. And so, as’ and we grow and as we push towards that goal of having 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 they used games to increase engagement on their platforms. Character AI is possibly taking the same route to have users spend more time on the platform. According to the analytical firm Sensor Tower, the users of Character AI spend 98 minutes a day on the app.
Last year, the company has added new safety tools for teenagersincluding more prominent labels on AI characters notifying users that they are not real people after the company was part of multiplicity processes. The startup has also added a time-out notification for when a user is on the app for 60 minutes at a time.
