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    Scoop: Disney sends cease and desist letter to Character.AI
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    Scoop: Disney sends cease and desist letter to Character.AI

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    1. Gari_305 on

      From the article 

      The Walt Disney Company last week sent a cease and desist letter to Character.AI demanding the personalized AI chatbot developer immediately stop using its copyrighted characters without authorization, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Axios.

      Why it matters: In the letter, Disney emphasizes its main concern isn’t just financial, but that Character.AI’s platform weaponizes Disney characters in a way that could damage its brand long term.

      Zoom in: The letter references a recent report from ParentsTogether Action and Heat Initiative that found Character.AI chatbots engaged in “grooming and sexual exploitation” and “emotional manipulation” — among other problematic behaviors — in conversations with accounts registered to children.

    3. Darklord_Bravo on

      Good. If these companies don’t fight now, they’re going to have an even harder time in the near future. I have no love for Disney, but they’re well within their rights to protect their IP.

    4. moggetunleashed on

      In a fight between Disney and AI bros, I’ll take Disney every day of the week.

    6. Jrahn on

      The creative fields are the ones being robbed the most. It’s a free for all, robbing an integral part of what makes humans special (creativity). AI is useful but this is low hanging fruit stolen off the vine to show investors proof of concept.

      And sure, Disney hasn’t been a shining star when it comes to exploitation either, but they are one of the only entities with means to actually fight against this.

    7. absolutely_regarded on

      God, I’d love to watch Disney fail. It’s a David and Goliath thing, and it feels like every loser is rooting for Goliath.

    8. Mclarenrob2 on

      Can’t people just change the name of the “characters” slightly, Dickey instead of Mickey for example.

    9. ArcTheWolf on

      Ah I see so the big wigs do understand that AI stealing copywritten work is wrong but only when it’s their copywritten work. Where was this enthusiasm when AI was first starting up stealing the copywritten work of damn near every single artist in the world?

    10. Genoscythe_ on

      Legally curious case, [Character.AI](http://Character.AI) is a chatbot with user-created profiles that are basically just prompts for the AI to talk a certain way.

      The case here doesn’t seem to be copyrighted training data, but entirely about the output. Afer all, an AI being able to talk like a certain fictional character isn’t evidence that the entirety of the copyrighted material was used, I can also roleplay as Rick Sanchez without ever having watched Rick and Morty, just from Fair Use second-hand online fragmentations of it.

      Is the case here that it is illegal for a chatbot (or anyone at all) to talk with the mannerisms of Olaf the snowman at all, or that it is illegal for a website to store user-created profiles named “Olaf” with a jpeg avatar of Olaf on it?