Disney Hires Former Character.AI Boss Amidst Copyright Controversy
The entertainment giant Disney has made a surprising move by hiring Karandeep Anand as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Anand was until recently the CEO of Character.AI, a company known for its conversational models that can imitate celebrities. He also has a background at Microsoft, where he spent 15 years running Azure.
But what's truly remarkable is the context behind this hiring. Barely a year ago, Disney sent cease-and-desist letters to Character.AI over copyright infringement concerns. The company was forced to shut down its chatbot service and block certain accounts to avoid facing retaliation from Disney.
Anand will be responsible for unifying in-house engineering, managing data platforms, and integrating AI into various aspects of the company. He's bringing along a team of engineers with him, which will help Disney beef up its development teams without having to spend months searching for outside talent.