PeopleofSuperintelligence

Company, United States

Character.AI

Statistics

People here now
0
People ever
6
Full moves in and out
2 in, 3 out

Our research follows 7,547 researchers, builders, lab leaders and public voices through cited biographies. Missing career records can lower counts. Outdated roles can overstate current counts and change ranks. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026. Career and profile data as of 22 October 2026.

We estimate that 6 people shaping AI have worked at Character.AI, all as former affiliations with no current roles recorded. By all-time headcount, Character.AI is tied for 100th among 3,344 companies (tied for 808th of 8,827 organizations overall). All 6 people with profile topics work in language and speech. Dated work records span from 2021 to 2024. Across dated career transitions, we record 2 full moves in and 3 out, led by departures to Google (2).

Among 6 people formerly at Character.AI with a known current role, Thinking Machines Lab employs the most (3), ahead of Google (2).Current employers of people who formerly worked at Character.AI (6 of 6 former people have a recorded current role). universitiescompaniesinstitutes and labs

A ranked bar chart of the 3 organizations that currently employ the most people formerly at Character.AI, led by Thinking Machines Lab (3).

Source: People of Superintelligence current and former career records, as of 22 October 2026.

Data table
Current organizationFormer people here nowShare of former people with a current role
Thinking Machines Lab350.0%
Google233.3%
OpenAI116.7%
From 2023 to 2026, 3 people left and 0 joined, a net loss of 3.Latest recorded transition per person, 2023–2026 (3 full moves and 0 roles taken alongside existing work).

A list of people who joined or left Character.AI from 2023 through 2026, with the year and move type.

Joined

No recorded moves.

Left

Source: People of Superintelligence career moves, as of 22 October 2026.

Data table
YearPersonDirectionOther organizationMove type
2026Daniel de FreitasLeftGoogleFull move
2026Noam ShazeerLeftOpenAIFull move
2024Stephen RollerLeftGoogleFull move

Across work histories (excluding degrees), 6 of the 6 people who have worked at Character.AI (100%) also held a work role at another organization, connecting Character.AI to 9 peer institutions.

Google shares the largest career overlap with Character.AI, at 4 of 6 people with work records elsewhere.Organizations where people with work records at Character.AI also worked at any time in their careers (6 people across 9 organizations; degrees excluded).

A ranked chart shows 5 organizations with people who also have work records at Character.AI. Each count is a distinct person with work stints at both organizations.

Source: People of Superintelligence affiliations and work stints, as of 22 October 2026.

Data table
OrganizationShared people
Google4
Meta3
Thinking Machines Lab3
Cornell University1
Hugging Face1

People here now

We have no evidence of a current role here. Our last dated work record here ended in 2024. All 6 people associated with Character.AI appear under former affiliations below.

People with former affiliations

We record 6 people who formerly worked at Character.AI. 6 of the 6 have a recorded current role at another organization, led by Thinking Machines Lab (3). Across the 3 former people with confident OpenAlex records, combined career citations total 16,561 (median h-index 15).

Posts that include Character.AI

Character.AI appears in 3 research posts comparing organizations across AI.

  1. Among employers with 30+ full-time cases, OpenAI leads primary technical role H-1B pay at $310,000, and Amazon, Google and Microsoft file 57% of all casesAcross 440,669 certified US H-1B filings from 44 employers (FY2020–FY2026), OpenAI leads primary technical role base pay at $310,000 and xAI leads overall base pay at $290,000.
  2. Google alumni have founded or led 133 other organizations, more than any other AI labWe estimate that alumni of 17 major AI labs went on to found or lead 350 other organizations, including 226 they founded, and we trace 472 career moves directly between 23 labs since 2010.
  3. Companies supply the most prior-work hires at 7 of the 9 frontier AI labsOur estimates of the organizations where 550 people worked directly before joining 9 frontier AI labs across 620 career transitions, comparing the main feeder organizations per lab.