Disney is investing $1 billion in OpenAI and plans to bring characters such as Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, and Luke Skywalker into the AI company's Sora video generation tool.
The OpenAI agreement makes The Walt Disney Company the first major content licensing partner for Sora, which uses generative artificial intelligence to create short videos.
Under a three-year licensing agreement, fans will be able to use Sora to generate and share videos based on more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters.
AI video generators like Sora have amazed us with their ability to quickly create realistic clips based solely on text prompts. But the flood of videos on social media, including clips depicting celebrities and deceased public figures, has raised concerns about misinformation, deepfakes and copyright, as well as concerns that “AI slop” could weed out human-made work.
Disney and OpenAI said they are committed to the responsible use of AI that protects the safety of users and the rights of creators.
“This agreement demonstrates how AI companies and creative leaders can responsibly collaborate to foster innovation that benefits society, honor the importance of creativity, and help work reach vast new audiences,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.
Disney's Bob Iger added that the partnership “expands the scope of storytelling through generative AI while respecting and protecting creators and their work.”
As part of the deal, some user-generated Sora videos will be made available on the Disney+ streaming service.
At the same time, Disney went after Google, demanding that it stop exploiting copyrighted characters to train its AI systems.
Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google, previously issued similar letters to Meta and Character.AI, and is suing NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery against AI image generator Midjourney and AI company Minimax.
