Within the newest salvo between Hollywood and synthetic intelligence firms, tech start-up Character.AI has eliminated many Disney characters from its chatbot platform after the Burbank leisure large despatched the agency a cease-and-desist letter, alleging copyright infringement.
Chatbots on the Character.AI platform impersonated well-known Disney characters equivalent to Elsa, Moana, Peter Parker and Darth Vader and generated replies that simulated the “essence, goodwill, and feel and look of every character” and likewise included their backstories, based on a letter dated Sept. 18 from a legislation agency representing Disney.
“These actions mislead and confuse customers, together with weak younger individuals, to consider that they’re interacting with Disney’s characters, and to falsely consider that Disney has licensed these characters to, and endorsed their use by, Character.ai,” the letter stated. “Actually, Character.ai is freeriding off the goodwill of Disney’s well-known marks and types, and blatantly infringing Disney’s copyrights.”
Disney additionally raised considerations about reviews that chatbots have engaged customers in inappropriate conversations.
A spokesperson for the Menlo Park-based startup stated in an e-mail that Character.AI responds “swiftly” to rights holders’ requests to take away content material and famous that the entire characters on the service are generated by customers.
On Tuesday afternoon, just a few Disney characters remained on the platform, together with Elsa from the hit animated movie “Frozen.” The spokesperson stated eradicating the characters is a course of.
“We wish to associate with the business and rightsholders to empower them to deliver their characters to our platform,” the spokesperson stated. “Our aim is to offer IP homeowners the instruments to create managed, participating and revenue-generating experiences from deep fandom for his or her characters and tales, increasing their attain utilizing our new, interactive format.”
Friction between Hollywood studios and AI companies has been rising.
In June, Disney and Comcast’s Common Footage sued AI firm Midjourney, alleging that its picture generator infringed on its copyrighted characters from franchises equivalent to “Star Wars” and “Despicable Me.”
Warner Bros. Discovery joined the authorized battle earlier this month, alleging that Midjourney’s software program was producing rip-offs of characters equivalent to Scooby-Doo and Superman.
