AI Character, a startup that lets users chat with different AI 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 to 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 they are chatting with in the browser and tap on the new controller icon. Users can then play the games with existing characters. The app shows a popup for users to start a new gaming chat so that their previous chat with that character stays the same.
In Speakeasy, users have to get the chatbot to say a specific word without using five words in the list. For example, if you need to make the bot say “croissant” without using words like pastry, butter, bake, french and flaky.
In War of Words, users must duel the character and an AI referee decides who won a particular round over 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 AI character live even more fun and entertaining. We’re currently testing a feature that allows you to play with your favorite characters while maintaining the immersive experience that users love,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Users already have their own characters for Text based games like this Space Adventure game. However, the company is trying to bring its own games to the platform as well.
Character AI has gone through personnel changes at the top after co-founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas left for Google. The company hired a YouTube executive as chief product officer, and Dominic Perella, who had been the company’s general counsel, became interim CEO.
In December, Perella told TechCrunch that Character AI is positioning itself as an entertainment company. The introduction of games is a step that further reinforces this image.
“While there are companies in the space focused on connecting humans with AI companions, that’s not what Character AI is about. What we want to do is really create a much healthier entertainment platform. And so as we grow and as we push toward that goal of having people create stories, share stories on our platform, we have to evolve our security practices to be world class,” he said.
Platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn and Netflix have used games to increase engagement on their platforms. Character AI likely follows the same path to make users spend more time on the platform. According to analytics firm Sensor Tower, Character AI users spend 98 minutes a day on the app.
Last year, the company added new safety tools for teens, including more prominent tags on AI characters that alert users that they’re not real people after the company was part of multiple lawsuits. The startup also added a timeout notification for when a user has been in the app for 60 minutes at a time.
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