Disney has agreed to offer jobs to at least 60 employees of chatbot start-up Character.AI, the majority of its workforce, after the company filed for bankruptcy this week, TechCrunch reports, citing a filing first spotted by Bloomberg. The roles carry estimated annual pay of about $60 million in total, and the filing says the vast majority of those approached have accepted. Character.AI's former chief executive, Karandeep Anand, recently became Disney's first chief technology officer, and the start-up had already said Disney would buy some of its assets for $20 million. The arrangement is a stalking-horse bid, so a rival could still make a higher offer. The filing blamed high costs and potential legal and regulatory liabilities, including a lawsuit over a teenager's suicide and child-safety investigations.
Source: TechCrunch