The creator of Cuppy, the star of the web series The Good Advice Cupcake, is calling out BuzzFeed for partnering with Amazon for an AI-created animated series about the character.
Loryn Brantz took to her Instagram, saying she’s “horrified and disgusted by BuzzFeed taking my character, The Good Advice Cupcake, and giving it to an AI platform.” Brantz initially developed Cuppy as a comic during her time at BuzzFeed before it was adapted into an animated web series by animator and voice actor Kyra Kupetsky.
“My time at BuzzFeed was marked by continually being taken advantage of and lied to,” she continued. “They repeatedly assured me in good faith that they would never do anything with Cuppy without my input, yet offered me no legal options, insisting that I would never need them. The news that this character, who is based on my own personality and whom I created as a microphone to spread love and positivity, has been taken and turned into a soulless AI puppet feels like having my intestines pulled out of my body.”
Brantz concluded, “Somebody leaked the news to me early on that there were talks happening, and I pleaded with the CEO Jonah Peretti directly not to do it. Instead, he tried to talk me into signing an NDA. Obviously, I did not. This is an assault on artists everywhere. I encourage you to boycott BuzzFeed and any AI-produced or adjacent animation.”
Earlier Wednesday, Amazon announced that it has greenlit three projects emerging from its GenAI Creators Fund, which will give filmmakers, digital creators and technology startups access to Amazon’s AI tools and funding to produce “high-quality cinematic entertainment.”
Cupcake & Friends from Buzzfeed Studios was among the three original animated series that will use Amazon’s Project Nara platform, a new production tool on Amazon Web Services that features AI tools.
Albert Cheng, head of AI Studios for Amazon MGM Studios, previously told The Hollywood Reporter of Project Nara, “What it tries to do is it streamlines and facilitates the end-to-end workflows of what we do, but also leverages the existing applications that professionals already know about.”
In response to Brantz, Jonah Peretti, president of BuzzFeed AI, wrote in a statement shared with THR, “We would have loved for Loryn to be involved as one of the people who worked to bring Cuppy to life while employed full time at BuzzFeed. We shared with her that human creativity would remain at the core of this project, with writing, storytelling, and animation being developed by humans and AI being used as a creation tool to help facilitate that.”
“We explained that this was similar to Walt Disney embracing Xerox technology to make ‘inbetweening’ easier — and that our partners at Amazon MGM Studios share our ethos, with a commitment to ensuring human creativity remains at the center of everything they make,” his statement continued. “However, she made it clear that she was categorically opposed to the use of AI in all its forms, and we respected that she did not want to be involved as a result.”
“That is absolutely her right. But her personal opposition to AI cannot determine how BuzzFeed develops IP that it owns, or deny the many other talented creators involved in this project the opportunity to do their work,” he concluded.
THR has also reached out to Amazon for comment.
Updated at 8:28 p.m. with a statement from BuzzFeed.
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