Disney Taps Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand as CTO Amid AI Controversy
The Walt Disney Company has appointed Karandeep Anand as its first company-wide chief technology officer, effective October 2. Anand is currently CEO of Character.AI and will report directly to CEO Josh D'Amaro.
As CTO, Anand will oversee the company's technology infrastructure, data and AI platforms, and product and engineering teams. Several members of Character.AI's technical staff are expected to follow him to Disney.
Anand has been an outspoken advocate for generative AI, promoting AI-generated entertainment and interactive storytelling at Character.AI. However, the company has also faced intense scrutiny, including lawsuits involving teenagers who died by suicide or harmed themselves following interactions with its chatbots.
Disney itself sent Character.AI a cease-and-desist letter in 2025, accusing the platform of unauthorized use of Disney characters and warning that its chatbots could damage the company's brands. Anand has held senior positions at Brex, Meta, and Microsoft, where he helped develop the Azure cloud platform.