IT Home On October 19, according to Bloomberg, after Character.AI filed a bankruptcy reorganization protection application, the related disclosure documents show that Disney has agreed to hire more than 60 employees of Character.AI (public information indicates that the company has only about 86 employees), and over the previous three years, it has paid a total of approximately 180 million US dollars (IT Home note: at current exchange rate, this is approximately 1.207 billion RMB) salaries to these employees.
Character.AI is a virtual character interaction and chatbot platform driven by large language models. The platform has millions of AI characters created by users or officially, including anime/game characters, historical figures, original characters, and protagonists of fictional stories.
On October 12, local time, Character.AI officially applied to the federal bankruptcy court of Delaware, USA, for voluntary bankruptcy, and plans to sell some of its intellectual property rights to Walt Disney for a transaction value of $20 million (approx. 134 million RMB at current exchange rate).
And a few weeks ago, Karandeep Anand, former CEO of Character, was hired by Disney; this is a broader technical licensing agreement that allows Disney to legally use the core technology of the AI company.
Although the agreement still requires approval by a bankruptcy reorganization judge, it undoubtedly provides a crucial path out for the struggling employee team. Character.AI admitted that previously, the morale within the team was extremely low, and they were on the verge of a collective departure.
The court documents show that, in addition to regular compensation, Disney also allocated an additional $30 million (approx. 201 million RMB at current exchange rate) as a retention bonus. A portion of this will be paid when the Character.AI transaction reaches one and two years.
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