Chai AI
AI platform
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CHAI AI (also known as CHAI Research) is an American artificial intelligence (AI) company operating a chatbot platform.[1] Founded in 2021 by William Beauchamp, CHAI's chatbots use large language models (LLMs). The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Artificial intelligence |
| Founded | January 2021 |
| Founder | William Beauchamp |
| Headquarters | , US |
| Website | chai-research |
History
William Beauchamp began developing the initial prototype for CHAI in 2020 while in Cambridge, United Kingdom.[2] The company launched in 2021 and relocated to Palo Alto in 2022.[3]
In January 2024, Chai Research reported a $450 million valuation following an investment from cloud computing provider CoreWeave.[4]
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.[5][6][7]
Reception
In 2025, Chai Research announced that their app had over 10 million downloads and 1 million daily active users.[8]
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.[9] 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, which initially provided inaccurate lists of the affected countries.[10] 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.[10]
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.[11] 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.[11]
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.[9][7]