Circle Labs: The Shape of AI-powered Friends to Come

A new AI revolution is upon us, and it is no longer a secret. In a matter of only a few months, recent LLM (large language model) breakthroughs have propelled AI from a niche trend to the dominating force behind much of the tech startup landscape. However, unlike other recent hype trends of the past few years, the value of AI has quickly become clear, showing us all how photos, writing, video, and other forms of creative media will vastly evolve in the coming years. Generative AI has the potential to transform content creation and consumption across industries including social media, gaming, immersive reality, entertainment, commerce, among many other consumer categories. However, while much of the world's attention has been focused on AI's impact on creative media in recent months, one of the earliest use cases of AI stands to also greatly benefit from recent tech advancements: AI-powered bots, or non-playable characters (NPCs).