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Google’s interest in AI personalities is real, but the evidence does not show that it launched the broad celebrity-chatbot service described in a 2024 report. The Information reported that Google Labs was developing customizable characters that could include celebrity and influencer bots. Google later announced Portraits, a narrower experiment built with participating experts. The two efforts may be related, but Google has not confirmed they are the same project.
What Google was reportedly developing
On June 24, 2024, The Information reported that Google Labs was working on a standalone chatbot product intended to compete with Meta’s celebrity chatbots and Character.AI. People familiar with the project told the publication that users might be able to create characters by specifying traits such as personality and appearance, while other characters could be modeled on celebrities or influencers. The report said Gemini was expected to power the conversations.
The report also said Google had discussed partnerships with influencers and considered a possible YouTube connection. Ryan Germick, a longtime Google designer associated with Google Doodles, was reportedly leading a team of about 10 people. A launch through Google Labs was being considered, but no release date was guaranteed. These were reported plans, not a public product announcement or confirmation that any celebrity had signed on. The Information’s report is the source for those details.
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What Google has publicly confirmed: Portraits
Google’s clearest public step in this area came on June 5, 2025, when it announced Portraits, a Google Labs experiment featuring AI representations of real experts. Its first example was author Kim Scott, known for Radical Candor. Google said Scott’s Portrait drew on her content, expertise and voice, and presented the conversation through an illustrated avatar using Gemini’s understanding and reasoning capabilities.
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Portraits is distinct from an open catalog of celebrity impersonations. Google described it as a collaboration with the expert, built around that person’s material and principles. The company announced the Kim Scott Portrait for users aged 18 and older in the United States. The announcement did not provide a general launch date, a full roster, or a subscription price. Google’s Portraits announcement does not say that Portraits is the renamed 2024 project.
How Portraits compares with the reported idea
| Aspect | 2024 project as reported | Portraits as announced |
|---|---|---|
| Character source | Potentially user-created characters and bots modeled on celebrities or influencers, according to The Information. | Real experts participating in the creation of their AI representations, according to Google. |
| Purpose | Reported as a broader character-chatbot product with potential entertainment uses. | An expert-focused conversational experience grounded in the participant’s content and expertise. |
| Platform status | Reported internal development; Google did not confirm the project’s details. | A publicly announced Google Labs experiment. |
| Availability | No confirmed public release or launch date in the report. | Google announced access in the United States for users aged 18 and older for the Kim Scott Portrait. |
The shared ingredients—AI conversation, a recognizable personality and Gemini—make Portraits relevant context, but do not establish a direct product lineage. Google Labs says experiments may or may not become products, so an experiment’s announcement is not a promise of wider availability. Google Labs’ overview describes that experimental role.
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Why Character.AI matters to Google’s plans
Character.AI helped make personality-based, user-created chatbot conversations a prominent consumer use case. Its connection to Google became more direct in August 2024: Google hired cofounders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas and licensed Character.AI models. The arrangement was not formally described as an acquisition. It gave Google access to relevant talent and technology, but does not prove that the reported celebrity-chatbot project launched or that Character.AI became part of Gemini. The Information reported the hiring and model-licensing agreement.
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The reported Google project was framed as competing with both Character.AI and Meta’s celebrity and influencer bots, and as exploring entertainment uses for generative AI beyond conventional question-answering. A personality may give users a reason to return, help creators extend access to their material, or make Gemini feel less generic. Those are plausible strategic benefits, not confirmed Google business plans.
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What a personality chatbot adds to Gemini
Gemini is the underlying model family in both the reported concept and Google’s description of Portraits. A chatbot’s character is a separate layer: its name, conversational tone, backstory, reference material and possibly its voice or avatar shape how the model responds. The model generates answers; the persona does not give it the real person’s consciousness, private memories or independent opinions.
For the rumored project, the report supports customizable personality and appearance, Gemini, and possible celebrity or influencer characters. The fuller architecture of a character system—such as curated source material, voice presentation, safety controls and clear AI disclosure—is useful to understand, but Google did not publish a specification for that project. Portraits offers a more concrete example of a partnership-based approach, with an expert’s content and voice contributing to the representation.
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Consent is the dividing line
A bot that uses a real person’s identity with their participation is materially different from one that merely imitates them. Google said Portraits was built in partnership with its featured experts and grounded in their authentic content. By contrast, the 2024 report said influencer partnerships had been discussed; it did not establish that proposed characters were authorized or that agreements were completed.
For a real-person AI persona, meaningful safeguards would include permission to use the person’s name, likeness and voice; a defined source library; disclosure that responses are AI-generated; a way for the participant to review, limit or withdraw the representation; and clear rules for commercial use. Permission to create a persona also does not make every generated sentence an authentic statement by that person.
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Risks readers should consider
- False endorsements: A bot might claim that a celebrity supports a product, treatment or political position. Treat such output as generated content unless the person confirms it through verified channels.
- Impersonation: A recognizable name, face or voice does not prove that a character is official or authorized.
- Advice that sounds authoritative: A simulated doctor, therapist, lawyer or financial commentator is not a substitute for a qualified professional.
- Children and emotional reliance: Personality-driven chat can feel intimate. Age limits, supervision, privacy practices and attention to emotional dependency matter, especially for teenagers.
- Drift from the creator’s views: A model can generate new statements that the person did not approve, even when the initial persona was built collaboratively. Ongoing review and a removal process matter.
- Commercial influence and privacy: Users should be able to tell whether a conversation is sponsored, whether recommendations earn revenue, what data is collected and whether conversations may be used to train models.
Google’s announcement says Portraits involved testing and feedback mechanisms; that is not a guarantee that every answer will be accurate or safe. Google also has a process for reporting certain generated or altered likenesses in Gemini image and video tools, but that page does not establish rules for a chatbot product. Google’s likeness-reporting guidance describes that narrower process.
What readers can try—and what remains unavailable
Google announced the Kim Scott Portrait as an early Labs experiment for U.S. users aged 18 and older. The cited public information does not establish a broad celebrity-chatbot marketplace, a full roster of participants, availability outside the United States, or the rumored YouTube integration. Nor does ordinary access to Gemini mean users can create official celebrity replicas there.
Character.AI remains a separate platform, not a Google consumer product. Developers can explore Google’s general-purpose tools, including Google AI Studio, but building a convincing interface does not grant rights to another person’s likeness, voice or copyrighted material. For businesses, Google Cloud offers conversational-agent services with separate usage-based pricing; those enterprise offerings are not pricing for Portraits or the rumored consumer project. Google Cloud’s pricing page covers that service, not celebrity chatbots.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsWhat the evidence establishes
As of August 16, 2026, the public record supports three separate points: a 2024 report described an ambitious Google Labs character-chatbot project; Google later announced Portraits, a narrower expert-partnership experiment; and Google hired Character.AI’s founders and licensed its models. The available sources do not establish that the original project became Portraits or that Google launched a general service for chatting with celebrity replicas.
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