Departures tracker

Who left Character.AI in 2026

3 recorded departures, newest first, each with the role, the date, a source and a confidence label. The AILately.com Desk adds to this list as the Signal publishes. Last entry 2026-10-02.

Character.AI on AI Lately · The Signal

Oct 2
Karandeep Anand joins Disney as first chief technology officer
Karandeep Anand to Disney, Chief Technology Officer, from Character.AI
Disney creates a new technology chief role and hands AI platforms, data and infrastructure to a consumer AI chatbot veteran.
hireconfirmedOct 2, 2026CIO Dive: Disney introduces CTO role to lead enterprise tech, AI platforms
Sep 18
Karandeep Anand leaves Character.AI to become Disney's first CTO
Karandeep Anand to Disney, Chief Technology Officer, from Character.AI
Disney taps an AI native to run its tech stack, a year after threatening the startup over copied characters.
hirereportedSep 18, 2026TechCrunch: Disney's first CTO led an AI startup it once accused of copying its characters
Aug 2
Noam Shazeer to Google DeepMind as AI Leader, Google DeepMind
Google's first use of the license-and-hire structure, reclaiming talent it had let walk away three years earlier.
acquihireconfirmedAug 2, 2024CNBC: Ex-Google engineers who founded Character.AI rejoin company with AI partnership