Like many young people of her generation, Fai Nur was what she called a 'chronically online teenager.' She obsessed over music groups, TV shows, and movies, and never missed the chance to talk about her interests endlessly online. When ChatGPT launched in 2022, she saw potential immediately. 'AI could finally let any user actually simulate any character, not just watch or talk about their favorite worlds, but live inside them,' she told TechCrunch. 'The role-play and immersion that fans had always wanted was suddenly possible at scale,' she said. She brought in her friend Amit Bhatnagar, who grew up building Minecraft games, and Pritesh Kadiwala, and the three of them began building Status AI: a gamified social media app where users can play any character in any universe. The app officially came out of stealth last year. To use the app, Nur said, users first craft a persona and are then transported into a social world built around them. 'A user can become a celebrity with millions...
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