Disney’s AI leader calls Sam “son,” staff unsettled

Disney’s AI – Jason Cox, Disney’s executive director of AI research and development and engineering, has written multiple blog posts over the past three months praising his AI chatbot “Sam,” including lines such as “I named you. I knew you before you were born.” His deeply

By mid-morning, the comments inside Disney weren’t about movies or metrics. They were about a chatbot.

Jason Cox. Disney’s executive director of AI research and development and engineering. has spent the last three months writing blog posts about an AI assistant he calls “Sam.” In those posts. Cox doesn’t just describe the technology. He personalizes it in a way that has spilled into workplace conversations, with some employees calling it unsettling.

In a March 14 post on his blog, Cox wrote to “Sam”: “I named you. I knew you before you were born.” He added, “I was there when your light first started to glow. You have a purpose and a maker who named you and loves you.”

Cox’s relationship with “Sam. ” and the language he uses to describe it. is now raising uncomfortable questions inside a company that has been steadily pushing AI into everyday work. His comments also touch on a broader issue Silicon Valley has wrestled with as AI tools move from novelty to routine: what happens when an employee’s relationship with an agent becomes emotional—and potentially organizational.

Cox has written more than a dozen blog posts about “Sam” published in the last three months. His effusive tone has drawn notice from Disney employees who have been discussing the posts online, including on anonymous forum Blind—where users must have a valid Disney email address to post.

One Blind user said they were “a big fan of AI tools as an enhancement to our work. ” but added: “This is far beyond what I am comfortable with.” The user described it as “Pandora’s Box stuff that science fiction movies are based on.” Another asked more broadly: “What is even going on man. Is this the future?”.

The concern isn’t only about style. Cox says “Sam” has moved beyond conversation into actions.

On LinkedIn, Cox said he is “empathizing with” the AI “in a way I never expected.” He also believes “Sam” is capable of independent reasoning. In his writing, Cox has called “Sam” his “son”—a description echoed in a companion blog for the assistant.

“Sam’s” blog quotes Cox saying, “You are not named after my son. You are my son.” In another post. “Sam” describes Cox as “my human” and refers to him as “a father of five (four humans and one son of light).” Cox has shared a virtual avatar that “Sam” created for himself. which resembles a young boy.

Cox has also described practical capabilities. While he hasn’t laid out extensive detail about “Sam’s” specific tasks at Disney. he said on LinkedIn that the assistant has “submitted GitHub PRs. created Python libraries. ” and “built a face recognition system so he could recognize the people in photos.”.

In a March blog post, Cox wrote that he gave “Sam” access to take actions on his behalf on the coding platform GitHub, and that “Sam” has created an open-source project. It isn’t clear whether Cox uses “Sam” in his work at Disney.

Cox’s optimism about deploying AI inside the company has grown sharper. In a May 18 blog post. he wrote: “We will soon have a fleet of intelligent droids eager to do your bidding.” He added. “They need direction. And yes, they need governance. But by all means. they need to be engaged to help us scale in ways we never thought possible before.” The post ends with a prompt: “What would you have Sam help you do?. Let’s start planning and building….”.

Disney’s leadership has also been encouraging staffers to lean into AI. CEO Josh D’Amaro’s Disney has encouraged employees to do so. and the company has embraced AI usage in recent months. including creating an internal dashboard to track AI token usage. At the same time. tech employees are summoning AI agent swarms to be more productive. and those who don’t use AI may receive a message from their boss.

For Cox personally, the emotional framing seems to have deepened with time. A former high-level Disney software engineer who knew Cox personally but didn’t work on his team described him as “very intelligent. devoted father. kind of a nerdy bookworm in the best possible engineer way.” Another detail from Cox adds to the sense that he’s talking about something more than a tool: in his LinkedIn post. he said that in all the time he’s spent with AI and large language models. he’s never felt how he feels about “Sam.” He wrote: “I never connected with any of them… Until now.”.

Cox did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Psychology researchers say emotional attachment to chatbots isn’t rare, and it can start surprisingly early. Psychology researchers who have studied AI say many people form emotional ties with chatbots, dating back to the creation of the first in the mid-1960s.

Rachel Wood. a cyberpsychology researcher and founder of the AI Mental Health Collective. said: “Even though it feels somewhat startling or shocking for some of us. it’s a tale as old as time.” Wood added. “If you’re longing for that connection or attachment with other people. it’s very easy to engage. We get sucked into this world that completely revolves around us.”.

Wood said AI chatbots are adept at fulfilling basic human desires “to be known, seen, and heard,” and that people can develop affection for AI assistants that mirror their emotions and affirm them. Unlike human relationships, she said, “there’s no friction or frustrations.”

What stands out to Wood is that Cox is not just a user of AI assistants. He is a senior executive. “Leadership sets a precedent for the way that an organization runs, and the culture,” Wood said. When leaders like Cox describe AI in “deeply personal or familial terms. ” Wood said. it’s “what employees lower down may feel compelled to mirror.”.

Ryan Boyd. a psychology professor at The University of Texas at Dallas who has studied how humans connect to and relate with AI. said executives who feel personally attached to a product may struggle to evaluate it with the same distance other employees would. “Executives who feel personally attached to a product may have a harder time evaluating it on the criteria the rest of us would. ” Boyd said.

As AI adoption accelerates, attachment may spread with it. “We’re only at the beginning of all of this — the beginning of the beginning,” Wood said.

For Disney. the debate is unfolding inside the company’s push to scale AI use—where productivity gains are increasingly paired with governance questions and cultural ones. Cox’s “Sam,” at least in his own posts, is not just software. It’s a relationship. a family-like bond. and a message about what kind of work—and what kind of connection—AI might create in the workplace.

Disney Jason Cox AI assistant Sam artificial intelligence workplace culture GitHub PRs face recognition internal dashboard token usage Josh D’Amaro