Disney has named Karandeep Anand, chief executive of Character.AI, as its first chief technology officer across the whole company. He starts on October 2, reports to CEO Josh D'Amaro, and takes charge of infrastructure, data, AI platforms and product engineering; some Character.AI engineers are expected to follow him.
Anand has championed interactive, AI-made entertainment. Character.AI settled suits over teenagers harmed after using its chatbots, and in 2025 Disney sent it a cease-and-desist over its characters.
Before Character.AI he worked at Brex, Meta and Microsoft. The hire lands while animation workers worry about jobs and the use of artists' work.
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