A Booming Competitor to Character.AI Plots Its Next Move

Many of you may not have heard of Talkie, a competitor to Character.AI in providing personalized artificial intelligence chatbots.

But Talkie, developed by Chinese firm MiniMax, is one of the most-downloaded AI apps in the U.S., according to multiple firms that track downloads. Its core base of users is young people, many of whom use the app for intimate conversations with fictional characters or fictional versions of celebrities such as Selena Gomez. The Talkie characters also interact through voice, not just text chats, though the voices don’t resemble those of the real celebrities.

Now, Talkie is preparing to add an AI video feature to help reignite its growth, which has stagnated lately, according to an employee and an investor with knowledge of the situation. The new feature could enable users to create videos based on texts.