Google buys AI avatar startup to compete with TikTok

Google has acquired Alter, an AI-assisted avatar startup, in a move that should help it compete better with TikTok.

Today, artificial intelligence is a very important part of our algorithms, and it will undoubtedly develop significantly in the coming years. Today it is used in all areas, in all industries. Tech giants need it to recommend content to us or help create content. Google just acquired a startup specializing in avatars and creating them using artificial intelligence (AI).

Google has acquired Alter, a startup specializing in creating AI-assisted avatars.

In fact, Google just recently acquired, so to speak, a startup that is working on an algorithm for creating artificial intelligence-based avatars for users and brands on social networks. Mountain View would have spent about $100 million to buy Alter, according to TechCrunch. This acquisition would have taken two months, and Google hasn’t announced anything publicly. The search giant recently confirmed the acquisition, but did not specify the financial terms of the agreement. Also, according to TechCrunch, Google would buy Alter in order to be able to better deal with TikTok.

An acquisition that should help it compete better with TikTok

Alter started life as Facemoji, providing a platform that other developers could use to add avatar systems to their apps and games. Alter co-founder and COO Jonathan Slimak recently posted on his LinkedIn profile that he is starting to “create Google Avatars.”So far, no one knows for sure how Altera’s team and technology will help Google better compete with TikTok. YouTube Shorts, Google’s version of short videos, has already been a big hit for the American giant. After a global rollout in the summer of 2021, Google announced last June that the platform has at least 1.5 billion monthly active users.