AI Chatbots: From Fetish to Funding – A Look at Character.ai’s Growth

SAP works with Microsoft-backed OpenAI to embed chatbot in products, reported revenue above analyst expectations, lowered outlook for the year. Shares rose 1% following update.

AI Chatbots From Fetish to Funding – A Look at Character.ai’s Growth

The German software maker said Friday (April 21) it had worked with Microsoft-backed OpenAI to embed the chatbot in its products for business. CEO Christian Klein said SAP had built more than 50 AI use cases. He added those products would be available to customers next month. Klein further said SAP had an internal committee to check for biases in AI use cases, and to guard against the potential misuse of the technology. The announcement comes on the same day SAP reported first-quarter revenue above analyst expectations. Revenue was up by a tenth to $8.2 billion, beating forecasts. That was driven largely by growth in SAP s cloud business, which grew almost a quarter year-on-year.

But it wasn t all positive for investors. The firm lowered its outlook for the year. It now sees yearly profit hitting up to around $9.7 billion – over $200 million down on previous forecasts. SAP shares rose around 1% on Friday (April 21) morning following the update. Huang also announced technology to speed up the design and manufacturing of semiconductors. The software uses Nvidia’s chips to speed up a step that sits between the software-based design of a chip and the physical fabrication of the lithography masks used to print that design on a piece of silicon.

Those calculations could take a traditional computing chip two weeks to complete, but Nvidia said Tuesday its chips and software can handle the task overnight and reduce the electricity used in the task from 35 megawatts to 5 megawatts. Nvidia said it was working with ASML Holding, Synopsys Inc and TSMC to bring it to market. TSMC will start readying the technology for production in June, Huang said.(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Bradley Perrett and Richard Chang).

Another generative AI company that provides chatbots, Character.ai, is on a growth trajectory similar to ChatGPT: 65 million visits in January 2023, from under 10,000 several months earlier. According to the website analytics company Similarweb, Character.ai’s top referrer is a site called Aryion that says it caters to the erotic desire to being consumed, known as a vore fetish .

And Iconiq, the company behind a chatbot named Kuki, says 25% of the billion-plus messages Kuki has received have been sexual or romantic in nature , even though it says the chatbot is designed to deflect such advances . Character .ai also recently stripped its app of pornographic content . Soon after , it closed more than $200 million in new funding at an estimated $1 billion valuation from venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz , according to a source familiar with matter . Character .ai did not respond multiple requests comment . Andreessen Horowitz declined comment ..

The news comes as both companies are looking ahead towards how they can continue innovating while ensuring ethical use of AI technologies like chatbots and other services powered by machine learning algorithms . As these companies continue their work , they must ensure safeguards are put into place so that their efforts are directed towards ethical applications that benefit humanity rather than harm it . Final Thought : Companies must ensure ethical applications when utilizing AI technology so as not only not cause harm but also benefit humanity overall .