Disney appoints former Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand as its first chief technology officer
The Walt Disney Company announced on September 18, 2026 that it has created a chief technology officer role and hired Karandeep Anand, most recently chief executive of Character.AI, as senior executive vice president and CTO. Anand will start on October 2, 2026, report directly to Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro, and oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms, product and…
Key points
- Disney creates its first CTO position and appoints Karandeep Anand, former Character.AI CEO, effective Oct 2, 2026.
- Anand will oversee enterprise tech, infrastructure, data, AI platforms, product and engineering, reporting to CEO Josh D’Amaro.
- Sources differ on Anand’s prior roles and Disney’s past legal actions against Character.AI.
CNBC notes Disney previously sent a cease‑and‑desist letter to Character.AI, is hiring additional technical staff from the startup, and has named Adam Smith as chairman of its direct‑to‑consumer division. TechCrunch adds that the cease‑and‑desist was issued in September 2025, mentions lawsuits over self‑harm content, and details Anand’s prior work at Facebook (2015‑2021) and 15 years at Microsoft. Unite.ai reports Anand became Character.AI CEO on June 20, 2025, previously served as President and CPO of Brex, and says several of Character.AI’s engineers will join Disney.
Disney names CTO for the first time as media giant expands tech push
CNBC Technology · 18 September 2026
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This text was published by CNBC Technology and written by Lillian Rizzo. It is reproduced here with attribution so you can read it in full; the rights remain with the publisher. Read it at the source ↗
Coverage and discussion
3sources- Disney’s first CTO led an AI startup it once accused of copying its charactersPress · TechCrunch AI ·
- Disney Names Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand Chief Technology OfficerPress · Unite.AI ·
The headline, key points and digest above were generated by Digest AI's editorial model from the linked sources. Automated summaries can contain errors: the sources are the record. Spotted a mistake? Tell us. Published by Martin K., who runs Digest AI and handles corrections.
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