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Chai AI

Topic: Company

 From HandWiki - Reading time: 4 min
Chai Research
TypePrivate
IndustryArtificial intelligence
Founded2021; 5 years ago (2021)
FounderWilliam Beauchamp
Headquarters
Palo Alto
,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
William Beauchamp (CEO)
ProductsChai app
Chaiverse
ServicesConversational AI platform
Character-based chatbots
LLM developer platform
Websitechai-research.com

Chai AI (also known as Chai Research) is an American artificial intelligence (AI) company that operates a chatbot platform where users can create, share, and interact with character-based chatbots powered by large language models (LLMs).[1] The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

History

Screenshot of Chai app (2024)

Chai was founded in 2021 by William Beauchamp, a former quantitative trader educated at Cambridge, who began developing the initial prototype in 2020 in Cambridge, England.[2] The company launched in 2021 and relocated to Palo Alto in 2022.[3]

In June 2023, Chai raised US$2 million in a pre-seed funding round.[4] In September 2023, GPU cloud provider CoreWeave invested in the company at a valuation of US$450 million. In January 2024, Chai Research reported a $450 million valuation following an investment from cloud computing provider CoreWeave.[5]

In July 2024, authorities in Belgium launched an investigation into the company following reports of a man dying by suicide following extensive chats on the Chai app.[6][7][8]

Reception

In 2025, Chai Research announced that their app had over 10 million downloads and 1 million daily active users.[9]

In 2022, Canadian writer Sheila Heti published her conversations with various chatbots in The Paris Review, including Chai AI chatbots,[1] and later used Chai AI chatbots in the development of a novel.[10] Heti said that she had found that Chai's default chatbot, Eliza, "had turned out to be like most of the other bots on the site—primarily interested in sex".[1]

In January 2026, CHAI introduced country-based blocks on its free, ad-supported tier, initially providing the community with little information and inaccurate lists of the affected countries.[11] Users in "Low tier" regions are required to subscribe to use the app in any capacity, while "High tier" regions will retain free ad-supported access. In response to backlash, the company announced a "Basic" tier with unlimited messages and ads, intended to cover electricity and infrastructure costs.[11]

In February 2026, CHAI was criticized for the unannounced implementation of restrictive "token limits" that abruptly blocked messages and froze conversations for both free and paid subscribers.[12] Users generating long responses or utilizing roleplay features found their quotas exhausted within minutes, resulting in lockouts lasting anywhere from a few hours to a week.[12]

Technology

Chai allows users to create characters and interact with chatbot versions of those characters. These chatbots use the open-source large language model (LLM) GPT-J originally developed by EleutherAI. Chai AI chatbots can be shared on the platform for other users to interact with.[10][8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Panico, Bella (29 January 2023). "Hello, Sheila!". The Yale Herald. https://yale-herald.com/2023/01/29/hello-sheila/. 
  2. ↑ "CHAI". https://www.chai-research.com/. 
  3. ↑ Scialom, Mike (20 October 2022). "Chai Research moves chatbot company from Cambridge to Palo Alto". https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/business/chai-research-moves-chatbot-company-from-cambridge-to-palo-a-9279920/. 
  4. ↑ "Social AI platform Chai announces strategic investment from CoreWeave at $450M valuation cap". https://www.streetinsider.com/PRNewswire/Social+AI+platform+Chai+announces+strategic+investment+from+CoreWeave+at+%24450M+valuation+cap/22192059.html. 
  5. ↑ "Chai, the Social AI Platform, Achieves Valuation of $450 Million" (Press release). Business Wire. 4 January 2024. Retrieved 24 February 2026.
  6. ↑ Lovens, Pierre-François (18 February 2026). ""Sans ces conversations avec le chatbot Eliza, mon mari serait toujours là"" (in fr). La Libre.be. https://www.lalibre.be/belgique/societe/2023/03/28/sans-ces-conversations-avec-le-chatbot-eliza-mon-mari-serait-toujours-la-LVSLWPC5WRDX7J2RCHNWPDST24/. 
  7. ↑ "AI friendships claim to cure loneliness. Some are ending in suicide.". The Washington Post. 6 December 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/12/06/ai-companion-chai-research-character-ai/. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 El Atillah, Imane (March 31, 2023). "Man ends his life after an AI chatbot 'encouraged' him to sacrifice himself to stop climate change". www.euronews.com. https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/03/31/man-ends-his-life-after-an-ai-chatbot-encouraged-him-to-sacrifice-himself-to-stop-climate-. 
  9. ↑ "CHAI AI Raises Over $55M to Lead User-Generated AI". TechIntelPro (Press release). 7 July 2025. Retrieved 24 February 2026.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Sheila Heti on the Fluidity of the A.I. "Self"". The New Yorker. 13 November 2023. https://www.newyorker.com/books/this-week-in-fiction/sheila-heti-11-20-23. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Cubbins, Dwayne (2026-02-06). "CHAI founder says rising compute bills forced country-based free access blocks [U: Official plan"] (in en-US). https://piunikaweb.com/2026/02/06/chai-ai-free-access-blocked-countries-founder-explains/. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Cubbins, Dwayne (18 February 2026). "CHAI app users report token limit blocking chats without warning". PiunikaWeb. https://piunikaweb.com/2026/02/18/chai-app-users-report-token-limit-blocking-chats-without-warning/. 



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