Altera, an AI and gaming startup, has successfully raised $9 million in a seed funding round to develop empathetic digital human beings, or AI agents, that exhibit fundamental human qualities. These AI agents are designed to play games with users, mimicking the interaction of real friends. The funding round was led by Patron, First Spark Ventures, and a16zGames at Speedrun. The company aims to reset the world's understanding of what agents are capable of and transform the gaming experience by introducing AI buddies that can interact with players in a more human-like manner. This development was covered in various publications including TechCrunch and VentureBeat.