Karandeep Anand, the former VP of Business Products at Meta, has been appointed as the new CEO of Character.AI, a Google-backed AI chatbot provider boasting tens of millions of monthly active users. Anand, who previously served as a board adviser, steps into the role during a critical time for the company as it navigates growth while addressing child safety concerns.
In recent months, Character.AI has introduced a suite of safety features in response to an ongoing lawsuit that accuses one of the company's chatbots of contributing to the death of a 14-year-old Florida boy. Anand brings a wealth of experience to Character.AI, having managed advertising products that reached billions of users across Meta's platforms. Prior to Meta, Anand was the head of product management at Microsoft, where he oversaw user experience on the Azure cloud platform. Most recently, he served as president of the fintech startup Brex.
Anand's appointment comes just over 10 months after Google lured away Character.AI's co-founder and CEO, Noam Shazeer, who had led core AI teams at the tech giant. Google also signed a non-exclusive agreement to use Character.AI's technology, sparking an antitrust investigation by federal regulators.
Character.AI has raised more than $150 million in venture funding, primarily from Andreessen Horowitz. In a blog post, Anand outlined his initial priorities, which include making safety filters "less overbearing" while maintaining a strong focus on user safety. He noted that the app often filters harmless content, which he aims to address.
Anand also plans to enhance the quality of AI models on Character.AI's platform, innovate around memory features, and increase transparency in decision-making processes. He anticipates rolling out many of these improvements within the next 60 days.
Character.AI specializes in entertainment-focused chatbots, which are gaining traction in the generative AI market. According to Sensor Tower data, 66% of the company's users in 2024 were between the ages of 18 and 24, and 72% were women.