Google is reportedly building AI chatbots based on celebrities and influencers

Google is reportedly constructing new AI-powered chatbots based mostly on celebrities and YouTube influencers. The thought isn’t groundbreaking — startups like Character.ai and corporations like Meta have merchandise like this — however neither is to date.

Google’s celeb chatbots will likely be powered by the corporate’s Gemini household of huge language fashions in response to The Info, which on Monday. The corporate is making an attempt to strike partnerships with influencers in addition to celebrities, and can be engaged on a characteristic that can let folks create their very own chatbots just by describing their personalities and look — one thing that Character.ai already . A enjoyable reality: Noam Shazeer, one of many co-founders of Character.ai, is a former Google engineer and of “transformers,” the basic tech that made at present’s generative AI doable.

It isn’t but clear which celebrities or influencers Google may associate with. Meta’s chatbots, as an illustration, are based mostly on personalities like TikTok star Charli D’Amelio, YouTube phenomenon Mr. Beast, Snoop Dogg, Tom Brady and Paris Hilton amongst others, whereas Character.ai’s characters embody politicians, philosophers, fictional characters, and even objects like a block of cheese that talks. Google’s mission is reportedly being led by a longtime govt referred to as Ryan Germick who works on Google Doodles, and a crew of ten.

It additionally seems like Google’s bots might be simply an experiment — in response to the report, the bots may solely present up on Google Labs, the corporate’s web site for experimental merchandise, as a substitute of being accessible extra broadly.

It isn’t clear why Google’s doing this. Meta’s AI chatbots based mostly on celebrities by no means actually took off regardless of the corporate stuffing them in each product it makes. As The Info identified, the corporate’s chatbot based mostly on Snoop Dogg has solely 15,000 followers on Instagram in contrast with 87.5 million followers who comply with the human rapper.

This text comprises affiliate hyperlinks; for those who click on such a hyperlink and make a purchase order, we might earn a fee.