{"slug": "disney-appoints-ai-evangelist-karandeep-anand-as-its-first-chief-technology", "title": "Disney Appoints AI Evangelist Karandeep Anand As Its First Chief Technology Officer", "summary": "The Walt Disney Company named Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand as its first company-wide chief technology officer, effective October 2, reporting to CEO Josh D'Amaro. Anand will oversee Disney's technology infrastructure, data and AI platforms, and product and engineering teams, with several Character.AI technical staff expected to follow him. Disney sent Character.AI a cease-and-desist letter in 2025 over unauthorized use of Disney characters, and the hiring comes as animation workers raise concerns that generative AI could eliminate jobs and appropriate artists' work.", "body_md": "[Artificial Intelligence](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/artificial-intelligence)\n\n[Executives](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/executives)\n\n[Studios](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/studios)\n\n# Disney Appoints AI Evangelist Karandeep Anand As Its First Chief Technology Officer\n\n### Stay informed with free updates\n\nSign up to get our news digest — delivered directly to your inbox twice a week.\n\nIf you can’t beat ’em, hire ’em. The Walt Disney Company has named Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand as its first company-wide chief technology officer, [further indicating](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/artificial-intelligence/disney-plus-openai-sora-chatgpt-1-billion-257521.html) that artificial intelligence will play a major role in the future of the House of Mouse.\n\nAnand will join Disney on October 2 and report directly to CEO Josh D’Amaro. He will oversee the company’s technology infrastructure, data and AI platforms, and product and engineering teams. Several members of Character.AI’s technical staff are also expected to follow him to Disney.\n\nThe appointment gives an outspoken advocate for generative AI considerable influence over the technology used throughout Disney’s film, TV, streaming, and parks businesses. At Character.AI, Anand promoted AI-generated entertainment and interactive storytelling, arguing that audiences increasingly want to participate in stories rather than simply consume them. The company recently expanded into AI-generated comics and animated vertical microdramas.\n\nCharacter.AI has also attracted intense scrutiny. The company settled lawsuits involving teenagers who died by suicide or harmed themselves following interactions with its chatbots. Disney itself sent Character.AI a cease-and-desist letter in 2025, accusing the platform of unauthorized use of Disney characters and warning that its chatbots could damage the company’s brands.\n\nBefore joining Character.AI in 2025, Anand held senior positions at Brex, Meta, and Microsoft, where he helped develop the Azure cloud platform.\n\nHis hiring comes as Disney pushes deeper into genAI despite widespread concern among animation workers that the technology could eliminate jobs, appropriate artists’ work, and reshape how entertainment is produced.\n\nImage from *The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/disney-appoints-ai-evangelist-karandeep-anand-as-its-first-chief-technology", "canonical_source": "https://www.cartoonbrew.com/artificial-intelligence/disney-karandeep-anand-chief-technology-officer-266827.html", "published_at": "2026-09-18 17:55:52+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-19 13:23:43.591139+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "generative-ai", "ai-products"], "entities": ["The Walt Disney Company", "Karandeep Anand", "Character.AI", "Josh D'Amaro", "Brex", "Meta", "Microsoft", "Azure"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/disney-appoints-ai-evangelist-karandeep-anand-as-its-first-chief-technology", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/disney-appoints-ai-evangelist-karandeep-anand-as-its-first-chief-technology.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/disney-appoints-ai-evangelist-karandeep-anand-as-its-first-chief-technology.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/disney-appoints-ai-evangelist-karandeep-anand-as-its-first-chief-technology.jsonld"}}