Creator criticizes BuzzFeed and Amazon over AI cupcake cartoon

In short: BuzzFeed has licensed the “Good Advice Cupcake” character to Amazon’s Prime Video for a new animated series that will use AI tools, and the character’s original creator is publicly objecting.

What happened

Loryn Brantz, an author and illustrator, created an advice giving cupcake character known online as “Good Advice Cupcake,” also called Cuppy, while working at BuzzFeed. The character later appeared in a BuzzFeed-made web series that ran in 2019.

Brantz said on Instagram that she is angry after learning BuzzFeed licensed the character to Prime Video for a new show called Cupcake & Friends. Reports about the project say it is being developed with AI tools, meaning software that can generate content like images or animation from prompts (like asking a very fast assistant to draft options for you).

BuzzFeed told WIRED that BuzzFeed owns the character’s intellectual property, meaning the legal rights to use and profit from it. BuzzFeed also said it is excited to use new technology to revive an older series, and that it is working with a team of creatives.

Jonah Peretti, president of BuzzFeed AI and former CEO, said the company told Brantz that humans would still do the writing, storytelling, and animation, and that AI would be used as a tool. Brantz disputes how the outreach happened, and says she was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement before getting details. She says she is exploring legal options.

Why it matters

This dispute highlights a growing fear for many artists and writers: characters and styles they helped create can be reused in new projects, including projects that use AI, even when the original creator does not want that. For regular viewers, it raises questions about who controls familiar characters, and how much human work is behind new animated shows.

Source: Wired