Google Shifts Focus: Internal Reorganization Leads to Deprioritization of Gen Z Chatbot App Bubble Characters

Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL Google quietly ditched its AI-powered mobile chatbot app, "Bubble Characters," specifically designed for Gen Z users and featured interactive digital characters.

Google developed the "Bubble Characters" app, which featured "human-like" conversations that "take action" and is "interesting for GenZ," CNBC cites according to the app's description.

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The app utilized large language models and massive data sets to power its conversations and generate human-like text—the app aimed at an ideal chatbot experience for Gen Z users by leveraging advanced language processing technology.

Development on the app began in the fourth quarter of 2021, but Google deprioritized and halted its work due to an internal reorganization at Google.

The app utilized large language models to power its conversations and generate text.

The interactive digital characters in the app would engage in conversations, ask follow-up questions, and even offer relationship advice.

Within Google's Assistant organization, the focus has shifted to prioritize another chatbot project called Bard.

As a result, Google redirected some members of the Bubble Characters team to work on Bard before its launch.

Notably, several top AI researchers from Google have left the company to establish their own chatbot companies, indicating the growing interest and investment in the chatbot industry. 

One such company is Character.AI, founded by former Google researchers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, which raised $150 million in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz in February.

Price Action: GOOG shares traded higher by 1.08% at higher $118.98 premarket on the last check Wednesday.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.