GenAI chatbot developer Character.AI co-founders Noam Shazeer (former Google employee) and Daniel De Freitas, along with certain research team members, have joined Google. Dominic Perella, Character.AI's general counsel, has been appointed interim CEO.

As part of this transition, Character.AI has also agreed with Google, providing a non-exclusive license for its current LLM technology. This agreement aims to provide increased funding for Character.AI's growth and focus on building personalized AI products.

Analyst QuickTake: Character.ai achieved unicorn status in March last year, raising USD 150 million from Andreessen Horowitz. Over the past year, the company has also launched several new features, including “Group Chat” and voice capabilities . On a separate note, in March this year, Microsoft hired chatbot developer Inflection AI’s CEO, Mustafa Suleyman, and chief scientist Karén Simonyan.