Amazon Is Making an AI-Animated 'Good Advice Cupcake' TV Show. Its Original Creator Is Furious

A cartoon character created years earlier became the center of an intellectual property dispute involving BuzzFeed, Amazon’s Prime Video, and generative AI tools. The creator criticized BuzzFeed for not following through on good-faith promises and condemned the licensing of her advice-giving cupcake character for a planned animated series. The series is being developed with AI tools under a fund backed by Amazon Web Services and Amazon MGM Studios. The creator described the project as harmful to artists and urged a boycott of BuzzFeed and AI-produced or related animation. BuzzFeed’s leadership changes and plans to use AI to expand the brand were also cited as part of the broader concern.

"Brantz shared an Instagram post calling out the once-dominant media brand. She was responding to news that the company had licensed her advice-giving cupcake character, Cuppy, to Prime Video, which plans to release a series called Cupcake & Friends, developed with AI tools. It's one of three new animated shows greenlit through the GenAI Creators' Fund, a joint initiative of Amazon Web Services and Amazon MGM Studios."

"“This is an assault on artists everywhere,” Brantz declared in her post. The headlines announcing the project were a nightmare come true—and a scenario that everyone who works in a creative field has begun to dread in the age of AI. Digital media outlets that have been continually restructured over the years would seem to be particularly fertile ground for such deals."

"Brantz, currently an executive creative director for the YouTube educator, blasted BuzzFeed and Amazon for their plans to turn her character into a “soulless AI puppet” on Instagram. “I encourage you to boycott BuzzFeed and any AI-produced or adjacent animation,” she wrote."

"“Nothing said in good faith by managers and executives was followed through with,” Brantz says of BuzzFeed, her former employer. Brantz began writing and illustrating for BuzzFeed in 2014, at the height of the outlet's influence. She was also working on her own books and posting original content to her social media channels."

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