Funny or scary? AI startup character.ai is adding a two-way voice conversation feature to its chatbot. This basically means that until now, users of the character.ai chatbot were talking to AI characters over chat, but now they will be able to interact with the character over a call. The AI ​​startup announced on Thursday that the feature is available for free to all users of the character.ai app. “Character Calls is an important milestone in our journey to expand where, when, and how you can interact with characters,” reads the company’s blog post on the new feature.

The Character.ai chatbot allows its users to create personalized AI characters, which can also be based on celebrities or influencers. With the rollout of the calling feature, users will now be able to talk to these AI characters on a call anytime. “With Character Call, your characters are stepping up to become your ultimate companion, entertainer, and guide! Whether it’s brushing up on your language skills, acing interviews, adding excitement to RPGs, or crafting epic tales, characters are ready to answer your call to add fun and help you do whatever you want to do,” the AI ​​startup said in the blog.

How Character Calls work on the Character.ai app

Starting a call is easy. The AI ​​startup says that call delays are low, meaning conversations flow smoothly without long waits. You can interrupt the AI ​​character at any time by tapping a button.

Characters now offer a variety of voices, accents, and personalities for you to choose from. You can converse in a variety of languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and many more. If you prefer texting to talking, you can seamlessly switch between the two modes at any time, ensuring the conversation never stops.

In March this year, character.ai launched a somewhat similar feature called Character Voice. Unlike character calls, which do not allow users to have real-time calls with AI characters, this one allows users to hear the character talking to them.

Interestingly, the announcement of the feature by AI startup character.ai comes just a day after OpenAI announced that the rollout of advanced voice mode for its latest model GPT-4 is being delayed by a month. Meanwhile, Google is reportedly working on a chatbot idea that is very similar to character.ai. Google is developing AI chatbots based on celebrities and YouTube influencers. These chatbots will provide users with an experience similar to chatting with a celebrity. The technology behind these chatbots will apparently be powered by Gemini LLM.