Author: CAI | CharacterX

When the winners of the Solana hackathon were announced, the entire studio exploded. 'CAI | CharacterX CEO Gieno recalled, 'This is not only a recognition of our technical strength, but also a validation of our core belief - the future of AI will be limitless.'

Choosing to go against the trend

In 2023, with the popularity of ChatGPT, the AI field has witnessed an unprecedented follow. However, in this blue ocean, entrepreneurs quickly encountered a common problem: the heavy restrictions of centralized large models make it difficult for many innovative applications to be implemented.

"At that time, we were thinking that if we want to truly serve our users well, we must have our own model," Gieno said. This decision was destined to be difficult - it meant fighting alone in the race track where global tech giants are everywhere. But for the CAI ( | CharacterX) team, this choice seems inevitable.

Ye, the head of the team's Web3, based on the deep accumulation in MetaMask, is well aware of the importance of Decentralization and Permissionless for a Web3 project; while Jeremy, the head of AI, has served tens of millions of users in Ant Group and understands every detail of large-scale deployment.

It is this team background that gives them the courage to face difficulties.

From 0 to 5 million users

"After we released the first beta version, to be honest, we ourselves were not sure how the market would react." A early developer of CAI | CharacterX recalled. But what happened next surprised the entire team.

In less than a year, CAI | CharacterX has attracted more than 5 million users, with a daily active user base exceeding 200,000, and an average of 52 minutes spent on the platform per user per day.

Behind these data, it is not only the recognition of the project but also reflects the strong demand of the market for unrestricted AI.

Investor's Insight

Such achievements quickly caught the attention of top-tier investment institutions. In January 2024, CAI | CharacterX completed a $2.8 million seed round financing at a valuation of $30 million. Investors include Lightspeed Capital, as well as other well-known institutions in the field, such as INCE Capital.

"What we are optimistic about is not only the rise data of CAI | CharacterX, but also their in-depth thinking on AI infrastructure." This is how a person in charge of an investing institution commented, "In the field of AI, teams that are truly capable of building infrastructure are rare, and CAI | CharacterX has seized this opportunity just right."

Ecological layout and strategic cooperation

The development of CAI is not limited to technological innovation, but also reflects in its extensive ecological layout. Since its launch, we have established Depth partnership with multiple important ecosystems in the Web3 field:

In terms of public chain ecosystem layout, CAI has established Depth cooperation with multiple important platforms. As the largest AI project in the Solana ecosystem, we hope to form a strategic partnership with Solana Foundation in the future; at the same time, we also plan to provide AI infrastructure support for the rapidly rising Scroll and explore AI application scenarios in the emerging public chain ecosystem with Bera.

At the strategic cooperation level, we are partnering with Oraichain to collaborate on AI data validation and smart contract integration. In addition, we are also preparing to work with Carv to explore the identity and data analysis in the Web3 gaming field, and teaming up with Distilled AI to advance the optimization and application development of AI models, jointly creating a more powerful AI infrastructure ecosystem.

"These partnerships not only demonstrate the industry's recognition of CAI's technological strength, but also showcase our layout in the Depth of Web3 AI infrastructure," explained Ye. "Each collaboration is carefully considered, with the goal of enriching our ecosystem and providing more possibilities for users and developers."

Depth of technological innovation

CAI | CharacterX's uniqueness lies in their relentless pursuit of technology. The team has optimized and customized the Depth based on Llama, ensuring model capability while paying special attention to deployment efficiency and cost control.

"Technological innovation is not for the sake of innovation itself," Jeremy explained, "What we consider is how to make AI technology truly serve more users and enterprises. For example, our proud 7-day deployment framework is the result of repeated optimization."

Market Development and Opportunities

Currently, the global AI market is in a period of explosive growth. According to authoritative institutions, the market size is expected to reach $15.7 trillion by 2030, with a high annual compound growth rate of 27%. In this context, the layout of CAI | CharacterX becomes increasingly important.

"Our vision has never been just about building an AI application," Ye emphasized, "we want to create an infrastructure that truly brings AI to the public." This vision is being validated by the market - several top exchanges have started to contact CAI | CharacterX regarding the TGE scheduled for Q4 2024."

Bright future

Today, CAI | CharacterX, has grown from a newcomer in the Solana ecosystem to an important player in the Web3 AI field. But for the team, this is just the beginning.

"In the AI era, infrastructure is like the roads and bridges of the digital world," Gieno envisions the future, "what we are building is a highway to the infinite possibilities of AI."