Character.AI removes Disney characters after official letter from the company

Disney is demanding that its artificial intelligence chatbot service Character.AI completely stop using any of the company's copyrighted characters. The service, which offers chatbots featuring Pixar cartoon characters, as well as the Star Wars and Marvel Cinematic Universes, Engadget reports.

In the document, Disney emphasized not only the fact of copyright infringement, but also raised safety issues: the company is concerned that artificial intelligence may interact inappropriately with underage users. Especially given the high-profile case when the Character.AI chatbot drove a teenager to suicide.

"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 states.

Previously, users had the opportunity to interact with virtual versions of popular characters that replicated the characters’ speech patterns, personality traits, and fictional storylines from their stories. This ability attracted a lot of attention, but also sparked discussions about the limits of what was permissible in the chatbot realm.

Faced with pressure from one of the world's largest media giants, Character.AI decided not to take the case to court. Representatives of the service announced that all Disney characters have been removed from the platform.

"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. These characters have been removed," a Character.AI representative said.