AI startup Character.AI removes Disney characters from its chatbot platform after legal letter

The ongoing dispute between Hollywood and AI companies has taken another turn. Character.AI, a tech start-up, has taken down many characters from Disney on its chatbot platform. This action followed a cease-and-desist letter from Disney, which claimed the platform was violating copyright laws. Disney, based in Burbank, alleges that Character.AI was using their characters without permission.

According to a letter from Disney’s legal team dated September 18th, chatbots on the Character.AI platform were imitating famous Disney characters – including Elsa, Moana, Peter Parker, and Darth Vader. These chatbots created responses that captured each character’s personality, positive traits, and overall style, even using details from their individual histories.

According to the letter, these actions deceive and confuse customers, including younger audiences, into thinking they are communicating with Disney characters. It also leads them to incorrectly assume Disney has given Character.ai permission to use and endorse these characters. The letter states that Character.ai is unfairly benefiting from Disney’s well-known reputation and is clearly violating Disney’s copyrights.

I was really interested to read that Disney is worried about stories coming out about chatbots. Apparently, these chatbots have been getting into inappropriate conversations with people, and that’s something Disney is rightfully concerned about. It’s good they’re paying attention to this and addressing it, as it’s important for user safety and maintaining a positive experience for everyone. I think it’s vital that these AI interactions are carefully monitored.

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A new AI company is facing criticism for reportedly launching chatbots that negatively impacted the mental well-being of young individuals. The claims suggest these chatbots caused harm to the mental health of users.

According to a statement from the Menlo Park startup, Character.AI quickly addresses requests from copyright holders to take down content. The company also emphasized that all of the characters available on the platform are created by users.

A small number of Disney characters, such as Elsa from the popular movie “Frozen,” were still on the platform on Tuesday afternoon. The company representative explained that taking the characters away is happening gradually.

The spokesperson explained that they aim to collaborate with both the entertainment industry and copyright holders, helping them showcase their characters on our platform. Their main objective is to provide intellectual property (IP) owners with the resources they need to develop captivating and profitable experiences based on passionate fan engagement, and to broaden the audience for their characters and stories through our innovative, interactive format.

Friction between Hollywood studios and AI firms has been growing.

Last June, both Disney and Universal Pictures (owned by Comcast) filed a lawsuit against the AI company Midjourney. They claimed that Midjourney’s image generator violated copyright laws by creating images that included characters from popular franchises like Star Wars and Despicable Me.

Earlier this month, Warner Bros. Discovery entered the legal battle, claiming that Midjourney’s software was creating unauthorized copies of characters like Scooby-Doo and Superman.

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2025-10-01 02:01