Disney Sends Cease & Desist to Character.ai

Photo Credit: Lydia Turner

Disney has issued a cease and desist letter to artificial intelligence company Character.ai after reports of chatbots imitating Disney characters were involved in harmful and inappropriate conversions with children.

The move follows a report from ParentsTogether Action and the Heat Intitiative, which documented alleged instances of AI bots engaging in “grooming and sexual exploitation” and “emotional manipulation” when interacting with accounts controlled by minors. This is something Digital Music News has explored in its recent DMN Pro report, which explores how fringe communities are building unauthorized chatbots of their favorite music celebs.

The letter was sent by Disney’s legal team and highlights widespread misuse of its intellectual property on the Character.ai platform. Disney characters, including those from Pixar films, the Star Wars franchise, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe were found to be reproduced, monetized, and used without authorization. Upon learning of the removal, Digital Music News went searching to see what was affected on the platform.

Searches for popular characters like Princess Leia, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Tony Stark, and Captain America return no results. While lesser-known characters like Jabba the Hutt, Ewoks, and Grogu from The Mandalorian were still available as of the time of writing.

“Character.ai’s infringing chatbots are known, in some cases, to be sexually exploitattive and otherwise harmful and dangerous to children, offending Disney’s consumers and extraordinarily damaging Disney’s reputation and goodwill,” the letter reads.

“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,” it continues. “Disney will not allow your company to hijack its characters, damage its brands, or infringe its copyrights and/or trademarks. Character.ai’s conduct is egregious and must stop immediately.”

“We want to partner with the industry and rights holders to empower them to bring their characters to our platform,” a Character.ai spokesperson said in addressing the removal. “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.”

After receiving the letter, Character.ai confirmed that it had removed Disney-related chatbots from its service. The company hides behind its user-created banner, suggesting that users are allowed to create whatever they like on the platform and it is up to rights holders to police how that IP is used. This cease and desist letter comes at a time when Disney and NBCUniversal are suing image-creation AI Midjourney for alleged copyright infringement.