In another recent story involving Disney’s concerns with AI-based companies utilizing copyrighted characters, the company has now sent a warning to Character.AI over several of its AI-based chatbots.
Character.AI
In a new article from CNBC, it has been revealed that last week The Walt Disney Company sent a cease and desist letter to a company called Character.AI. The company in question allows users to personally create and then interact with AI-powered chatbots that can be based on existing characters. The company’s website calls it the “#1 AI chat app” and advertises “10M+ Characters.”
Character.AI has reportedly been involved in legal issues prior to this incident with Disney. CNBC mentioned that in 2024, the company faced a wrongful death lawsuit from the family of a14-year-old Florida boy, who “alleged he committed suicide after he became addicted to talking with a number of AI chatbots on the app.”
In 2024, Google signed a $2.7 billion licensing deal with Character.AI and hired its co-founders.
Disney Cease and Desist Letter
A Disney spokesperson confirmed with CNBC that the cease and desist letter sent to Character.AI was a warning to “stop using copyrighted characters without authorization.”
A spokesperson from Character.AI responded, saying “it’s always up to rightsholders to decide how people may interact with their IP” and that the characters mentioned in the letter from Disney have already been removed from their platform. The spokesperson later went on to tell CNBC:
We want to partner with the industry and rightsholders to empower them to bring their characters to our platform. Our goal is to give IP owners the tools to create controlled, engaging and revenue-generating experiences from deep fandom for their characters and stories, expanding their reach using our new, interactive format.
Disney Versus AI
This story is only one of several recent incidents that have pitted Disney, as well as other major media companies like NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery, against AI-based companies that have used copyrighted characters for various purposes. In mid-September, all three companies filed a lawsuit against Chinese AI company MiniMax for copyright infringement, claiming its image and video generating service “pirates and plunders Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works on a massive scale.”
Disney and Universal also filed a joint lawsuit against AI company Midjourney this June, with Warner Bros. filing their own suit against the same company a few months later.
At the same time, it was also revealed that Disney considered creating an AI deepfake of Dwayne Johnson for the live-action Moana. Disney also recently filed a patent for advancements in animatronic projection technology, which could potentially use AI.
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