Google quietly ditched plans for an AI-powered chatbot app for Gen Z

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Google was working on an AI-powered mobile chatbot app for Gen Z users that features interactive digital characters, CNBC has learned.

However, the company recently “deprioritized” those efforts amid an internal reorganization, according to materials seen by CNBC. Typically, when a product is deprioritized at Google, work on it ceases.

Called “Bubble Characters,” the app featured a choice of talking digital character that would interact in conversations with Gen Z users, according to internal documentation viewed by CNBC. The company had been working on it since Q4 2021.

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The app’s description states that it featured “human-like” conversations that “take action” and are “interesting for GenZ.” The conversations were powered by large language models, which are massive data sets used to understand and generate human-like text.

“What started out as something from a science fiction novel, became the next generation of human-level conversation,” the app’s description read. 

In an example seen by CNBC, a cartoon-like character’s friendly voice engaged in conversation, asked follow-up questions and even offered relationship advice.

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The Gen Z chatbot was one among a range of AI-powered projects using Google’s large language models in the last several months. Within the Assistant organization, which works on virtual assistant applications or two-way conversations for a variety of platforms, executives have prioritized ChatGPT-competitor Bard amid an internal reorganization that included the departure of a few key executives. Some of the Bubble Characters team members were asked to put a pause on their work on the Gen Z app to work on Bard ahead of its launch, according to correspondence viewed by CNBC.

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Meanwhile, some of Google’s top AI researchers have left the company to start their own chatbot companies, drawing investments in an otherwise slow funding environment. Character.AI, a two-year-old company building a companion AI chatbot led by former Google researchers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, raised $150 million led by Andreessen Horowitz in February. 

Google did not immediately return a request for comment.

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