Disney's first CTO led an AI startup it once accused of copying its characters

Disney’s first CTO led an AI startup it once accused of copying its characters

Disney hired its first-ever CTO, Karandeep Anand, former CEO of Character.AI. Disney sent that startup a cease-and-desist letter in September 2025 for hosting copyrighted characters. Anand was picked by new CEO Josh D'Amaro and previously worked at Facebook and Microsoft. Character.AI has also been sued over chatbots allegedly encouraging self-harm and suicide.