An Update on Character.ai
blog.character.ai
Today, we’re sharing that Character.ai has initiated a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy process to facilitate a court-supervised sale of the company.  Over the past year, we’ve taken meaningful steps to sustain and improve our business amid significant legal, regulatory, and operational headwinds. After a comprehensive review
  • VibeSurgeon@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    16 hours ago

    There’s no surprise here - the founding team already got picked up by Google in a reverse acquihire. What was left was just the corpse.

    If you’re trying to take this as a sign of impending AI Business failure, you should look probably elsewhere.

    Reverse acquihires should probably be illegal to be honest. It leaves a lot of people out in the cold.

    • 42yeah@eviltoast.orgEnglish
      0·
      8 hours ago

      Reverse aquihire means no trademarks and no company assets though, right? Just the talent s being hired away. That means the founding team have already noticed that company is going down, otherwise why leave the company you founded?

      • VibeSurgeon@piefed.socialEnglish
        0·
        4 hours ago

        It means you:

        • Pay off the investors by licensing the tech, so they get made whole
        • Hire whichever employees you feel like taking from the team, typically the founders + their favourites
        • Leave the rest of the company in place

        You can do it as a founder as a type of exit where you get paid a whole lot of money.

        The bad part is that every other employee at the company basically gets stiffed. The “social contract” of startups is that you forego a big tech-level compensation package in favour of stock options which may provide returns at the point of an exit. In reverse acquihires this social contract is directly violated.