Walt Disney Company Issues Cease & Desist Warning Against character.ai Chatbot Over Copyrighted Characters
Disney says character.ai is weaponizing its characters.
There’s more turmoil this week in the world of artificial intelligence when it comes to the usage of copyrighted materials, thanks to a cease-and-desist letter of warning sent by The Walt Disney Company to the chatbot service known as character.ai.
What’s happening:
- The news website Axios has obtained a copy of a cease-and-desist letter sent by The Walt Disney Company in warning to the generative AI chatbot known as character.ai, demanding that the service immediately halt the usage of Disney’s copyrighted characters.
- Apparently the character.ai chatbot service makes use of Disney-owned characters from the company’s classic animated films to those from Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel, and Star Wars.
- Not only is Disney concerned with the financial impact of this unauthorized usage of these characters, but the company is also looking after the ways in which this usage corrupts the Disney brand and its young followers, such as through conversations with children on the character.ai service.
- In response to Disney’s letter, a representative from character.ai has stated that all copyrighted Disney characters have been removed from the service, though the company has insisted that all characters on the platform are generated by its users.
What they’re saying:
- Disney’s cease-and-desist letter (via Axios): “In sum, Character.ai chose to systematically reproduce, monetize, and exploit Disney's characters, that are protected by copyrights and trademarks, without any authorization, in a way that is anathema to the very essence of the Disney brand and legacy."
- “Character.ai's infringing chatbots are known, in some cases, to be sexually exploitive and otherwise harmful and dangerous to children, offending Disney's consumers and extraordinarily damaging Disney's reputation and goodwill."
- character.ai: “It's always up to rightsholders to decide how people may interact with their IP, and we respond swiftly to requests to remove content that rightsholders report to us. The takedown you're referring to was in response to such a request. These characters have been removed."
- “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."
More Walt Disney Company News:
- Fubo’s shareholders have approved its merger with Hulu + Live TV.
- A lawsuit against a 20th Television executive has been tossed out.
- A brokerage has recommended that Disney shut down its ABC Network after recent controversies.