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Disney has appointed Karandeep Anand, former CEO of chatbot startup Character.AI, as the company's first-ever chief technology officer. Anand will report directly to newly appointed CEO Josh D'Amaro and will oversee Disney's infrastructure, product, engineering, and data/AI platform teams. The hire is notable because Disney had previously sent Character.AI a cease-and-desist letter accusing the startup of allowing users to create chatbots based on its copyrighted characters without permission, making Anand's move to the entertainment giant an unexpected twist in that dispute.