Character.Ai lets you create Characters and talk to them using artificial intelligence. The company is currently in talks with investors about raising an additional round of funding only four months after raising $150 million at a $1 billion valuation.

Many are curious as to whether this move is spurred by potential pressure from Meta who has been testing a Character.AI-like product that enables people to chat with avatars who assume different personas, such as Abraham Lincoln. Naturally, such activity from such a media/tech giant creates pressure to keep millions of users engaged, especially as larger tech companies nip at its heels. 

This decision by Meta comes following its now finished programming assistant that can write code as well as a workplace productivity chatbot called Metamate that can help employees search for internal data, according to the person. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees at an all-hands meeting in June that it planned to use the AI agents initially in Meta’s Messenger and WhatsApp messaging apps, according to Axios. 

Further investment for Character.Ai could provide a cushion as it tries to generate revenue by charging for perks, such as faster chatbot responses, with a $9.99 monthly subscription. As registered users have swelled to 15 million since its September launch, the startup has struggled to keep its site running smoothly, and there’s often a wait time to log in.

Back to back funding rounds are on the decline in a post pandemic environment. In the last several months, advances in technology that can replicate humanlike text and images have rekindled appetite from venture capitalists, as well as tech companies like Google, Microsoft and Nvidia that provide computing and AI server chips and want to knit relationships with the promising startups.