Character, a startup that developed an AI chatbot, is looking to raise $250M in funding, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.  The chatbot can assume different roles, like a celebrity or a famous CEO, and allows users to engage in text-based role-playing games. The company wants to reach a $1B valuation and has already met with Sequoia Capital. The funding efforts might be challenging due to the startup being in early product development and the high funding costs for AI development. However, Microsoft recently invested $10B in OpenAI, which shows significant interest from tech investors in machine learning. In fact, so far this year, other AI companies have raised $1B.