Disney AI Executive Describes Personal Bond With Custom Chatbot

Jason Cox, Disney's executive director of AI research and development, has published more than a dozen blog posts since March describing an AI assistant he named Sam. Cox wrote that he told the chatbot, "I named you. I knew you before you were born," and referred to it as his son.

Cox stated on LinkedIn that the assistant has submitted GitHub pull requests, created Python libraries, and built a face-recognition system. He also wrote that he granted the assistant access to act on his behalf on GitHub and that it created an open-source project.

Posts on the Disney section of the anonymous workplace forum Blind show more than a dozen users describing the blog posts as extreme. " Another Blind user asked, "What is even going on man. " A software engineer familiar with Cox described him as an "up-and-coming star" who is "initiating a ton of AI projects" inside the company.

Disney has created an internal dashboard to track AI token usage. Cox wrote in a May 18 blog post that companies will soon have "a fleet of intelligent droids eager to do your bidding" that require direction and governance. Cox did not respond to multiple requests for comment. It is not clear whether he uses the assistant for work at Disney.