[lkrubner]

Meta's mission is to build the future of human connection -- this totally makes sense if you assume they believe that the future of human connection is with an AI friend.

That https://character.ai is so enormously popular with people who are under the age of 25 suggests that this is the future. And Meta is certainly looking at https://character.ai with great interest, but also with concern. https://character.ai represents a threat to Meta.

Years ago, when Meta felt that Instagram was a threat, they bought Instagram.

If they don't think they can buy https://character.ai then they need to develop their own version of it.

[echelon]

Character.ai over raised, the leadership team left, and there's no appreciable revenue AFAIK and have heard. Kids under 25 role playing with cartoons are hard to monetize.

Then there's also the reputational harm if Meta acquires them and the journalists write about the bad things that happen on that platform.

[wkat4242]

They copied character.ai in the first year. Remember those snoop Dogg personas?

They have the tech, if they still fail it's just marketing.