The Walt Disney Firm despatched a stop and desist letter to Character.AI final week, demanding that the AI chatbot developer cease utilizing its copyrighted characters with out authorization.
The letter was first reported by Axios.
The priority isn’t just about copyright infringement, although that is probably a big portion of Disney’s downside. The corporate additionally references a latest report from ParentsTogether Motion and Warmth Initiative that discovered Character.AI chatbots have interaction in problematic behaviors with underage customers. (If you have not seen yesterday’s video of Joseph Gordon-Levitt discussing Meta’s inappropriate chatbots, you need to test it out.)
Character.AI is a platform divided into a number of chatbot sections, together with ones for brainstorming, language apply, and different typical LLM use. However a number of chatbots have been educated on dialogue and knowledge to make them “converse” like in style characters the consumer can work together with.
A fast skim of the positioning will present choices for KPop Demon Hunters and Resident Evil characters, as an example. Loads of bots appear suggestive from the get-go.
“Character.ai’s infringing chatbots are recognized, in some circumstances, to be sexually exploitive and in any other case dangerous and harmful to kids, offending Disney’s shoppers and terribly damaging Disney’s status and goodwill,” Disney’s letter states.
The corporate’s calls for have been clear.
“Disney is not going to permit your organization to hijack its characters, injury its manufacturers, or infringe its copyrights and/or logos. Character.ai’s conduct is egregious and should cease instantly.”
In response, Character.AI eliminated the infringing characters from the platform.
A spokesperson for the positioning instructed Axios, “It is at all times as much as rightsholders to resolve how individuals might work together with their IP, and we reply swiftly to requests to take away content material that rightsholders report back to us.”
Final month, Warner Bros. Discovery filed a lawsuit towards AI picture generator Midjourney, after a joint lawsuit filed by Disney and NBCUniversal again in June. Hollywood appears unified in establishing authorized precedent now earlier than AI-generated content material turns into much more refined and widespread.
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