Sept 30 (Reuters) - Walt Disney ( DIS ) has sent a

letter to Character.AI demanding that the AI startup immediately

stop the unauthorized use of its copyrighted characters, Axios

reported on Tuesday.

In a letter from last week, Disney ( DIS ) said that its concern is

not only financial, but that Character.AI's platform weaponizes

the media giant's characters in a way that could damage its

brand in the long term, according to Axios.

Disney's ( DIS ) letter references a report from ParentsTogether

Action and Heat Initiative, Axios said.

The joint investigation found that Character.AI's chatbots

engaged in a pattern of deeply concerning behavior, including

grooming and sexual exploitation, as well as emotional

manipulation and addiction.

Character.AI told Reuters that all of the characters on its

service are generated by users and some are inspired by existing

characters, adding that it had removed the characters, as it was

up to rightsholders to decide how people may interact with their

intellectual property.

Disney ( DIS ) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Character.AI allows users to create characters on its

platform that respond to online chats in a way meant to imitate

real people. It relies on large language model technology, also

used by services like ChatGPT, which "trains" chatbots on large

volumes of text.

Disney ( DIS ) has taken an aggressive stance towards AI companies

for copyright infringement, suing China's MiniMax earlier in

September, along with Comcast's ( CMCSA ) Universal and Warner

Bros Discovery ( WBD ).

The complaint followed a lawsuit filed by Disney ( DIS ) and

Universal against Midjourney in June for offering a commercial

service providing unauthorized AI-generated copies of their

copyrighted work.