AI chatbot startup files for bankruptcy
The gist
Character.AI filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on Monday, citing legal and regulatory headwinds.
Its fate now rests on a court-supervised sale, with Disney bidding $20 million.
How it unfolded
- 2021Character.AI is founded by former Google researchers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas.
- 2022 -09The startup reaches unicorn valuation with a $150 million fundraise; users had exchanged over 2 billion messages with its bots in five months.
- 2024 -08Google strikes a $2.7 billion deal to license the startup's models; Shazeer and De Freitas return to Google, and general counsel Dominic Perella becomes interim CEO.