FILE PHOTO: A screen shows the trading information and company logo for The Walt Disney company on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., May 7, 2025. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

(Reuters) -Walt Disney 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 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 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 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 has taken an aggressive stance towards AI companies for copyright infringement, suing China's MiniMax earlier in September, along with Comcast's Universal and Warner Bros Discovery.

The complaint followed a lawsuit filed by Disney and Universal against Midjourney in June for offering a commercial service providing unauthorized AI-generated copies of their copyrighted work.

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Alan Barona)