According to U.S. media outlet CNBC, on the 18th local time, Disney announced that Kalpinder Anand, former CEO of Character.AI, will take up the position of Senior Executive Vice President and the company's first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) on October 2, reporting directly to CEO Josh D'Amaro.

D'Amaro has been leading Disney for only a few months and has consistently emphasized using technology to drive the company's various business developments. According to Disney's arrangement, Anand will oversee the company's enterprise technology, infrastructure, data, and AI platforms, as well as product and engineering operations, while coordinating different technology teams to further modernize the entire Disney's technology development and delivery methods.

"Comprehensive Experience in Infrastructure, Consumer Technology, and AI"

In a statement, D'Amaro said: "Kalpinder has rare comprehensive experience in infrastructure, consumer technology, and AI, and will become an important member of Disney's senior management team, helping us continue to advance three key priorities: using excellent storytelling as our North Star, using technology to serve creativity, and operating in a coordinated way under the 'One Disney' approach."

Before joining Disney, Anand led Character.AI, a platform that allows users to create chatbots with different characters and interact with them. In addition to hiring Anand, Disney also recruited some talent from the technical team of Character.AI. Disney stated that during Anand's tenure, Character.AI experienced rapid growth, establishing one of the most active consumer-level AI user groups globally, while placing user trust and safety at the forefront of the platform's development. Previously, he also worked at the fintech company Brex and Facebook, which is part of Meta.

It is worth noting that Disney had previously sent a cease-and-desist letter to Character.AI last year, demanding it stop using Disney's copyrighted characters without authorization.