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Google’s building celebrity chatbots. Will anyone use them?

Google’s new AI chatbots will let you chat with celebrities, influencers, or custom personalities you create.

by
Kevin Raposo
June 25, 2024

Image: KnowTechie

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Google’s reportedly cooking up a fresh batch of AI chatbots that’ll let you virtually hang out with your favorite celebrities and influencers. Because what the world really needed was more artificial conversations with famous people, right?

According to The Information, these chatbots will be powered by Google’s Gemini family of large language models. The search giant is allegedly trying to partner with influencers and celebrities to create these digital doppelgangers.

But here’s the wild part – they’re also working on a feature that lets users build their own custom chatbots just by describing their personality and appearance.

Who wouldn’t want to have a deep conversation with a virtual version of themselves? The Information broke the story.

Google’s not the first to the celebrity chatbot party, mind you. Startups like Character.ai are already letting users chat with AI versions of politicians, philosophers, fictional characters, and even a chatty block of cheese.

And let’s not forget Meta’s chatbots, which feature personalities like Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady.

But hey, Google’s got a secret weapon – one of Character.ai’s co-founders, Noam Shazeer, is a former Google engineer who helped create the transformer tech that makes modern generative AI possible, according to Engadget.

It’s unclear which celebrities Google plans to recruit for this virtual meet-and-greet. But Android Authority imagines the possibilities – debating the meaning of life with a philosophical AI Albert Einstein or getting fashion advice from a sassy virtual Anna Wintour.

And it’s possible these chatbots might only see the light of day on Google Labs, the company’s playground for experimental products.

Google’s move raises some questions, though. Meta’s celebrity chatbots haven’t exactly set the world on fire, despite being shoved into every product the company makes.

I mean, Snoop Dogg’s Meta chatbot only has 15,000 followers compared to the 87.5 million who follow the human version on Instagram, Engadget points out. Maybe Google’s hoping its chatbots will have more bite?

Either way, it’s a wild time in the world of AI chatbots. And who knows – maybe someday we’ll all have our own digital twins to argue with. Stay tuned.

What are your thoughts on Google’s celebrity chatbots, and would you use them? Drop us a line below in the comments, or carry the discussion to our Twitter or Facebook.

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