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Headlines · 6
- Character.AI files for bankruptcy; Disney bids $20M for partial IP
Character.AI, the five-year-old AI roleplay startup, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware federal bankruptcy court on Oct. 12, citing "significant legal, regulatory and operational headwinds," according to The Information. In the bankruptcy auction Disney is the sole initial (stalking horse) bidder, paying $20 million for a non-exclusive perpetual license to part of the company's intellectual property; the report says the platform has over 20 million monthly active users averaging 75 minutes a day, but only about 139,000 paying subscribers (under 0.7% conversion), roughly $30 million in annualized revenue against about $30 million in monthly operating costs, and $56.1 million in compute spending from January to August 2026. Cofounder Noam Shazeer left in 2024 through a deal with Google (joining OpenAI in 2026), Disney has hired former CEO Karandeep Anand as CTO along with about 65 technical staff, and none of 28 potential buyers would take the whole business; the court-supervised sale is expected to finish in late November or early December, and the service has not yet shut down.
DoNews · 🔥 6 - AI toys boom on Chinese e-commerce platforms as return rates top 50%
Tech Planet (republished by 36Kr) reports that AI toys have become a hot new category on Chinese e-commerce: Taobao's AI toy transaction value grew more than 1,600% in 2025, Pinduoduo has just added an AI toy category and begun recruiting merchants, and JD.com offers its own JoyInside platform to power such toys. Prices typically range from 399 yuan to 3,000 yuan, far above 99-yuan blind boxes, and the article cites MIIT figures putting China's AI toy market at 29 billion yuan in 2025 with a projected 34.2 billion yuan in 2026. The flip side is heavy homogenization and difficult, unstable connectivity, with return rates persistently above 50%; vendors lean on hardware-plus-subscription models and one says it uses Doubao domestically and ChatGPT overseas.
36氪 人工智能 · 🔥 4 - Ben Affleck's AI-assisted Netflix film 'Animals' draws poor reviews
Ben Affleck's self-directed Netflix film "Animals" premiered on October 9, with post-production using tools built by his AI company InterPositive. Affleck publicly acknowledged that AI was used in several places but declined to say which shots, making him the first Oscar-level director to openly admit deep AI use in filmmaking. Reception was weak: Rotten Tomatoes critics' freshness stands at 33% and audience popcorn score at 42%, with a Metacritic score of 33, as reviewers called the narrative flat and muddled and the visuals cheap. Netflix acquired InterPositive for $587 million in March, with Affleck serving as senior adviser; the company says its models are not trained on unauthorized film works but on proprietary datasets shot in controlled studios, and that its tools adjust lighting and optical effects and remove some visual effects elements. Hollywood remains divided, with Martin Scorsese advising Black Forest Labs, Danny Boyle using generative AI for roughly 30 seconds of his new film and drawing boos, and Christopher Nolan voicing wariness of the technology.
虎嗅 AI · 🔥 0 - Character.AI files for Chapter 11; Disney bids $20M for some assets
Character.AI, owned by Character Technologies, said Monday it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a Delaware federal court to pursue a court-supervised sale of all or substantially all of its assets, and agreed to sell Disney a non-exclusive, permanent licence to some of its intellectual property and certain legal claims for $20 million. Disney is designated the stalking-horse bidder, so its offer sets a floor and rival buyers can bid higher; Character.AI expects the sale process to close in late November or early December 2026. The company cited significant legal, regulatory and operational headwinds over the past year, having settled lawsuits over teen mental health and suicides while facing further claims from families and US states; its court filing listed estimated assets and liabilities of $50 million to $100 million. Character.AI said the platform remains up, subscriptions stay active for now, but the service will be wound down if no buyer is willing to keep running it.
Techmeme · 🔥 12 - Epic delays Disney shooter, mandates 'AI first' development with no handwritten code
According to a Bloomberg report, Epic Games has delayed an upcoming Marvel- and Star Wars-themed shooter made with Disney and instructed the team to adopt an “AI first” production model, with internal messages saying there would be “no more hand-written code” and that all art assets would be “generated with full AI workflows,” leaving human developers to supervise and guide model output. The project had been slated for March, and the report ties the delay to slower-than-expected, understaffed development as well as the process overhaul; no new release date has been given. Epic spokesperson Jake Jones said the company is embracing AI-accelerated development led by its developers, and CEO Tim Sweeney said the aim is to let staff build more and better content rather than simply cut people.
Techmeme · 🔥 0 - OpenAI in talks to license Sora to Katzenberg-backed filmmaking AI startup
The Information reported on Oct. 12 that OpenAI is negotiating with a stealth AI video startup focused on film production to hand over the shuttered video model Sora, which the startup would adapt and sell as software or services to filmmakers. The startup was founded in recent months by Hollywood producer and DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, former Sora research lead Bill Peebles and former Dropbox CFO Sujay Jaswa; its name has not been disclosed. People familiar with the talks said OpenAI would receive an equity stake in the startup if a deal is reached, though the size is unknown and it remains unclear whether the startup would get Sora's model weights. Sora and its TikTok-like app were shut down this year as OpenAI cut server-intensive side projects, and OpenAI also ended a roughly $1 billion Disney partnership; WndrCo, co-founded by Katzenberg and Jaswa, was previously reported to be in talks for a large funding round including a16z.
The Information · 🔥 0
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