Person
Technology executive, ex-CEO of Character.AI and now Disney's first companywide CTO; earlier Brex president and CPO, and a Facebook and Microsoft veteran.
Disney expects to spend $180 million over three years on pay and retention for 66 Character.AI staff, Business Insider reported from a Chapter 11 filing. That is nine times the $20 million Disney agreed to pay for the startup's assets.
Reality
Character.AI filed for Chapter 11 on October 12 with a $20 million stalking-horse bid from Disney for a non-exclusive license to its AI technology. Google paid about $2.7 billion for a non-exclusive license to its model technology in 2024, 135 times that figure.
Reality
Disney will open bidding at $20 million for a license to Character.AI's IP after the chatbot startup filed for Chapter 11 in Delaware. Character.AI says it will wind down the service if the sale produces no bid sufficient to keep the platform running.
Perspective Coverage
28 publishersReality
Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro hired Karandeep Anand, who previously ran Character.AI, as the company's first companywide CTO. His first memo to staff sets focus and a willingness to say no as the terms of the job, so the first test is which technology projects lose.
Reality
Karandeep Anand takes over Disney's technology on 2 October, about a year after Disney's lawyers told the company he ran to strip its characters out of user-made chatbots. Several of his engineers come with him.
Perspective Coverage
7 publishersReality
Karandeep Anand becomes Disney's senior executive vice president and CTO on October 2, reporting to Josh D'Amaro. Disney expects an unspecified number of Character.AI engineers to follow him into a remit covering enterprise systems, data and AI.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishersReality