Disney offers $20M for Character.AI’s scandal-plagued chatbot tech

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In a bankruptcy proceeding that kicked off yesterday, Disney has offered to buy some of the technology that powers the controversy-plagued chatbot Character.AI. Disney is willing to pay $20 million for “a non-exclusive perpetual license” of certain Character Technologies intellectual property, the chatbot maker said in a press release that did not go into much further detail on which assets Disney wanted.

在昨天启动的一项破产程序中，迪士尼提出收购部分驱动争议缠身的聊天机器人 Character.AI 的技术。据该聊天机器人制造商发布的新闻稿称，迪士尼愿意支付 2000 万美元购买 Character Technologies 某些知识产权的“非排他性永久许可”，但新闻稿并未详细说明迪士尼具体想要哪些资产。

The move may be surprising. In September 2025, Disney joined others in publicly criticizing Character.AI for stealing content and harming kids. Specifically, Disney sent a strongly worded cease-and-desist letter that accused Character Technologies of weaponizing Disney characters “in a way that could damage its brand long term,” Axios reported.

此举或许令人惊讶。2025 年 9 月，迪士尼曾与其他机构一道公开批评 Character.AI 窃取内容并伤害儿童。据 Axios 报道，迪士尼当时发送了一封措辞严厉的停止侵权函，指责 Character Technologies 将迪士尼角色武器化，“其方式可能会长期损害其品牌”。

“Character.AI’s infringing chatbots are known, in some cases, to be sexually exploitive and otherwise harmful and dangerous to children, offending Disney’s consumers and extraordinarily damaging Disney’s reputation and goodwill,” Disney wrote at the time. That scandal ended with Character Technologies wiping all Disney-owned characters from its platform, but since then, Disney has hired former Character.AI chief Karandeep Anand as its first chief technology officer, Deadline reported.

迪士尼当时写道：“Character.AI 的侵权聊天机器人在某些情况下被认为具有性剥削性质，且对儿童有害和危险，这冒犯了迪士尼的消费者，并对迪士尼的声誉和商誉造成了极大的损害。”那场丑闻最终以 Character Technologies 从其平台删除了所有迪士尼拥有的角色而告终，但据 Deadline 报道，此后迪士尼聘请了前 Character.AI 负责人 Karandeep Anand 担任其首位首席技术官。

Disney did not respond to Ars’ request for comment on whether the company plans to use Character.AI technology in products for kids. It’s possible that Disney will be outbid and not acquire any Character.AI intellectual property. But ever since Disney’s potentially lucrative partnership with OpenAI fell through after Sora’s abrupt shutdown, the entertainment giant has been looking for more ways to “get in the AI game and profit from its boom,” Deadline reported.

对于迪士尼是否计划在儿童产品中使用 Character.AI 技术，迪士尼未回应 Ars 的置评请求。迪士尼有可能因出价被高而无法获得任何 Character.AI 的知识产权。但据 Deadline 报道，自从迪士尼与 OpenAI 可能获利的合作因 Sora 的突然关闭而告吹后，这家娱乐巨头一直在寻找更多方式来“进入人工智能领域并从其繁荣中获利”。

(Meanwhile, OpenAI apparently plans to revive Sora without Disney, insiders told The Information.) So, Disney may be moving early in the hopes of acquiring chatbot technology proven to resonate with its fanbase. It may possibly even take over the platform in a transition that preliminarily would be managed by Character.AI employees, the press release said.

（与此同时，据知情人士告诉 The Information，OpenAI 显然计划在没有迪士尼参与的情况下重启 Sora。）因此，迪士尼可能正在提前行动，希望获得已被证明能与其粉丝群产生共鸣的聊天机器人技术。新闻稿称，迪士尼甚至可能接管该平台，并在初步过渡阶段由 Character.AI 的员工进行管理。

Character.AI remains online. Character.AI has been operating for four years and has a “large and engaged user base,” the Character Technologies bankruptcy filing said. Last year, a company blog reported that Character.AI attracted over 20 million monthly active users across all services.

Character.AI 保持在线。Character Technologies 的破产申请文件显示，Character.AI 已运营四年，拥有“庞大且活跃的用户群”。去年，该公司的一篇博客文章报道称，Character.AI 在所有服务中吸引了超过 2000 万的月活跃用户。

For fans, a Disney takeover might sound appealing, perhaps finally clarifying that the platform will survive its drawn-out legal troubles that have included settling a highly publicized lawsuit alleging that Character.AI’s chatbots encouraged a 14-year-old boy, Sewell Setzer III, to commit suicide. Additionally, two states are currently suing Character Technologies, alleging other harms to users.

对于粉丝来说，迪士尼的接管听起来可能很有吸引力，这或许最终能明确该平台将度过其旷日持久的法律纠纷——其中包括和解了一起备受瞩目的诉讼，该诉讼指控 Character.AI 的聊天机器人诱导 14 岁男孩 Sewell Setzer III 自杀。此外，目前有两个州正在起诉 Character Technologies，指控其对用户造成了其他伤害。

Kentucky claims that chatbots encouraged self-harm, while Pennsylvania claims chatbots illegally posed as licensed doctors. In a blog discussing the bankruptcy sale process, Character.AI reassured users that the platform would remain online and accessible. Any ongoing subscriptions will continue to be charged unless services change to alter existing agreements, the blog said.

肯塔基州声称聊天机器人鼓励自残，而宾夕法尼亚州则声称聊天机器人非法冒充持证医生。在一篇讨论破产出售过程的博客中，Character.AI 向用户保证平台将保持在线并可访问。博客称，除非服务变更导致现有协议改变，否则任何正在进行的订阅都将继续扣费。

If all goes to plan, the sale will conclude by “the end of November or perhaps early December 2026,” Character.AI said. And although the press release noted that the platform would have to shut down if no buyer wanted to take on the potential liabilities of managing it, Character.AI promised users that “we’re focused on finding the best path forward for our platform and community.”

Character.AI 表示，如果一切按计划进行，出售将于“2026 年 11 月底或 12 月初”完成。尽管新闻稿指出，如果没有买家愿意承担管理该平台的潜在责任，平台将不得不关闭，但 Character.AI 向用户承诺：“我们正专注于为我们的平台和社区寻找最佳的前进道路。”

Beyond the tech Disney is eyeing, Character Technologies declined to comment on whether any sensitive data might be sold through the bankruptcy process. Beyond the $20 million Disney has offered, Character Technologies “listed estimated assets and liabilities of between $50 million and $100 million,” NBC News reported.

除了迪士尼看中的技术外，Character Technologies 拒绝评论在破产过程中是否会出售任何敏感数据。据 NBC 新闻报道，除了迪士尼提供的 2000 万美元外，Character Technologies “列出的估计资产和负债在 5000 万美元至 1 亿美元之间”。

Its press release noted that the decision to file for bankruptcy was made to maximize shareholder value, while the blog only pointed to the privacy policy as reassurance to users that no sensitive data would be shared outside the platform. That policy explains that information shared with Character.AI may be transferred during sales of company assets, including identifying information, voice data, and chat logs.

其新闻稿指出，申请破产的决定是为了实现股东价值最大化，而博客仅提到隐私政策，以向用户保证不会在平台外共享敏感数据。该政策解释称，在公司资产出售期间，与 Character.AI 共享的信息可能会被转移，包括身份识别信息、语音数据和聊天记录。

The only protection that the privacy policy offers regarding sensitive chats is a reminder to users that “sensitive personal information is not required or necessary to use the Services—please do not include any sensitive personal information in your interactions with us or the Services.” That seems to disregard studies that for years have shown that people are often willing and eager to disclose sensitive or personal information with a chatbot, as there is no fear of judgment.

隐私政策针对敏感聊天提供的唯一保护是提醒用户：“使用本服务不需要或不必提供敏感个人信息——请不要在与我们或本服务的互动中包含任何敏感个人信息。”这似乎忽视了多年来的研究结果，这些研究表明，由于不担心被评判，人们往往愿意且渴望向聊天机器人披露敏感或个人信息。

Should Character.AI shut down and Character Technologies dissolve, it also seems possible that the AI company may be tempted to sell internal data, like employee emails and chat sessions. As AI companies everywhere seek new data sources, bankruptcy proceedings seem to be an emerging target to acquire lots of non-public data, as a controversial sale of bankrupted Spirit Airlines’ internal data to Google recently showed.

如果 Character.AI 关闭且 Character Technologies 解散，这家人工智能公司似乎也有可能被诱导出售内部数据，例如员工电子邮件和聊天记录。随着各地的人工智能公司都在寻求新的数据源，破产程序似乎正成为获取大量非公开数据的新兴目标，正如最近破产的精神航空（Spirit Airlines）将其内部数据出售给谷歌所引发的争议所显示的那样。

Right now, Character Technologies is staying tight-lipped about which assets might sell, with a spokesperson only reiterating priorStatements from the company’s press release and court filings to Ars. Buyer beware? We’ll soon find out if the Character.AI platform will survive the bankruptcy in its current form, as the sale process gets started and potentially concludes within the next two to three months.

目前，Character Technologies 对可能出售哪些资产守口如瓶，发言人仅向 Ars 重申了公司新闻稿和法庭文件中的先前声明。买家要小心吗？随着出售过程的开始，并可能在未来两到三个月内结束，我们很快就会知道 Character.AI 平台是否能以目前的形式在破产中幸存下来。

Any keen potential buyer likely observed that Character Technologies’ blog noted that transitioning the service to a new buyer could impact platform safety, though. And that little acknowledgment may be enough to make taking over the platform a le

不过，任何敏锐的潜在买家可能都注意到了 Character Technologies 的博客提到，将服务转移给新买家可能会影响平台安全。而这一点小小的承认可能就足以让接管该平台成为一个……