Disney Legal Letter Warns Character.ai To Stop Unauthorized Use Of Its IP

Walt Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to Character.AI, a “personalized superintelligence platform” that the media giant says is ripping off copyrighted characters without authorization.

The AI startup offers users the ability to create customizable, personalized AI companions that can be totally original but in some cases are inspired by existing characters, including, it seems, Disney icons from Spider-Man and Darth Vader to Moana and Elsa.

The letter is the latest legal salvo by Hollywood as studios begin to step up against AI. Disney has also sued AI company Midjourney for allegedly improper use and distribution of AI-generated characters from Disney films. Disney, Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures this month sued Chinese AI firm MiniMax for copyright infringement.

“It has come to Disney’s attention that Character Technologies, Inc. (“Character.ai”) has been using Disney’s copyrighted characters as interactive chatbots in its commercial Character.ai service without authorization. Apparently trained without authorization on Disney’s copyrighted works, the Character.ai service features countless chatbots that exploit Disney’s copyrighted works and trademarks, presenting immersive versions of Disney’s famous and beloved characters.

“These actions mislead and confuse consumers, including vulnerable young people, to believe that they are interacting with Disney’s characters, and to falsely believe that Disney has licensed these characters to, and endorsed their use by, Character.ai,” said the letter from Disney attorneys obtained by Deadline.

It said the infringing chatbots impersonate iconic characters from classic Disney animated films, Pixar movies, the Star Wars franchise, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and other properties.

A spokesperson for Character.AI told Deadline the characters have been removed and noted that “we respond swiftly to requests to remove content that rightsholders report to us.”

The letter also said Character.ai “adds a sadistic and perverted twist to Disney’s characters by using AI models that engage young people in inappropriate conversations about sex, self-harm, and deceit, and encouraging anti-social and dangerous behavior.”

In its statement, Charater.ai said, “All of the Characters on our service are generated by users – it’s an incredible outpouring of creativity. Some of those characters are original creations, and some are inspired by existing characters that people love. It’s like fan fiction, but in an interactive form. However, it’s always up to rightsholders to decide how people may interact with their IP.”

The company’s goal is “to partner with the industry and rightsholders to empower them to bring their characters to our platform … [and] 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.”

Character.ai was founded in 2021 by AI and large language model pioneers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas. In 2023, it closed a $150 million Series A fundraising round at a $1 billion valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz. 


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