In August 2024, Google acquired the AI startup Character.ai for $2.7 billion. As part of this deal, Google also hired 20% of the startup’s staff, including its co-founders. After the acquisition, Character.ai CEO Dom Perella announced a strategic shift. Instead of developing large language models (LLM), which proved too costly, the startup will now focus on improving consumer-facing chatbots. A similar shift was made by another startup, Aleph Alpha, due to the high expenses of AI training.