Disney Hires Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand as Chief Technology Officer

According to CNBC, Walt Disney said Friday it hired Karandeep Anand, most recently CEO of Character.AI, effective Oct. 2 as senior executive vice president and chief technology officer in a newly created role that will report to CEO Josh D'Amaro. Disney said Anand will oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and artificial intelligence platforms, product and engineering, and will work across tech teams to modernize how the company builds and delivers technology. D'Amaro said Anand brings experience across infrastructure, consumer technology and AI and will join Disney's senior leadership team as the company focuses on storytelling, technology in service of creativity and operating as One Disney. Disney also said it is hiring members of Character.AI's technical team. Anand previously led Character.AI through a period of rapid growth and has also held roles at Brex and Meta's Facebook.