Author and illustrator Loryn Brantz never imagined that a popular cartoon character she created almost a decade ago would one day be the subject of an intellectual property dispute involving BuzzFeed , Amazon ’s video streaming service, and generative artificial intelligence. But that’s exactly the situation she finds herself in today. “Nothing said in good faith by managers and executives was followed through with,” Brantz says of BuzzFeed, her former employer. This week, 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.…