Media and entertainment giant Disney (NYSE:DIS) sent a cease and desist letter to Character.AI last week demanding the personalized AI chatbot developer to immediately stop using its copyrighted characters without authorization, according to a report by Axios on Tuesday.
Disney has taken intellectual property infringement of its characters by artificial intelligence startups very seriously and has pursued legal action without hesitation. In September, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), and Universal (CMCSA) jointly filed a lawsuit against Chinese AI company MiniMax for infringing their IP.
Earlier this year, Disney and Universal sued U.S.-based Midjourney, alleging that the AI startup infringed their IP by generating high-quality images of their popular characters. That suit was noted as Hollywood’s first copyright infringement battle against a generative AI company.
The Axios report, citing the letter, said Disney highlighted that the AI company’s service is filled with chatbots that impersonate characters from its classic films and franchises, including Pixar movies, the Star Wars franchise, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“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,” the letter reads.
Commenting on the letter, a Character.AI spokesperson told Axios that Disney’s characters have been removed from its service.
“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,” the spokesperson told Axios.