Disney appoints its first CTO: former Character.AI CEO Anand brought in to oversee technology and AI platforms

On the 18th local time, Disney announced that former Character.AI CEO Karan Deep Anand will take up the role of Senior Executive Vice President and the company’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) on October 2, reporting directly to CEO Josh D’Amaro.

Article author, source: AIBase

D’Amaro has only been at the helm of Disney for a few months and has since emphasized leveraging technology to drive the company’s business development. According to Disney’s plan, Anand will oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data, and AI platforms, as well as product and engineering operations, while coordinating different technology teams to further advance the modernization of Disney’s technology development and delivery methods.

“Combined Experience in Infrastructure, Consumer Technology, and AI”

In a statement, D’Amaro said: “Karan Deep brings a rare combination of experience in infrastructure, consumer technology, and AI, and will be an important member of Disney’s senior management team, helping us continue to advance three main priorities: using great storytelling as our guiding principle, making technology serve creativity, and operating in a coordinated ‘One Disney’ approach.”

Before joining Disney, Anand led Character.AI—a platform where users can create and interact with chatbots for various characters. In addition to hiring Anand, Disney has also recruited some talent from the Character.AI technical team. Disney stated that during Anand’s tenure, he led Character.AI through rapid growth, establishing one of the world’s most active consumer AI user communities, while prioritizing user trust and safety as key elements of platform development. Previously, he also held roles at fintech company Brex and at Facebook under Meta.

It is worth noting that last year, Disney sent a cease and desist letter to Character.AI, requesting that it stop unauthorized use of Disney-owned copyrighted characters.