Google is in discussions to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Character.AI, an AI chatbot startup experiencing rapid growth. The investment aims to support the company in training AI models and meeting increasing user demand.

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Character.AI, founded by former Google employees Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, offers users the ability to chat with virtual versions of celebrities and anime characters, while also allowing them to create their own chatbots and AI assistants. While it's free to use, the company offers a subscription model at $9.99 per month, providing users with faster access to chatbots.

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The chatbots, known for their diverse roles and tones, primarily attract users aged 18 to 24, constituting around 60% of the website's traffic, positioning the company as a provider of entertaining personal AI companions compared to competitors like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard. The company reported attracting 100 million monthly visits in the first six months since its launch.