Disney has partnered with OpenAI and invested $1 billion in the Sam Altman-run artificial intelligence company. With the deal, Disney is also licensing the use of its characters in AI video creation platform Sora. Users will now be able to “legally” use Disney’s characters from Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars.
The “shortform video creation” will be allowed on Disney+ as part of “fan-inspired Sora short form videos.” The licensed character product launches on Sora and ChatGPT in early 2026. Expect the slop to overrun everywhere even more soon after.
The three-year deal is a 180 with how the company is dealing with Midjourney, another artificial intelligence company. In June, Disney and Universal launched a lawsuit against Midjourney calling it a “bottomless pit of plagiarism.” Warner Bros. launched their own lawsuit and the two cases were consolidated in November. One wonders if there were negotiations between Disney and Midjourney that didn’t pan out which lead to the lawsuit.
Disney recently sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google, alleging Google’s AI platforms have resulted in copyright infringement on a “massive scale.”
The move by Disney is another attempt to reach out to people “where they’re at,” following a $1.5 billion equity investment into Epic Games which brings Disney characters into Fortnite in a multiyear effort.
It’s also a major shift from Disney who is notoriously litigious in protecting its intellectual property. In one infamous case, Disney threated to sue a daycare center over murals that featured the likeness of their characters. Universal Studios and Hanna-Barbera stepped up to allow the use of their characters to prevent the legal action.
Unions were quick to condemn the deal saying it “sanctioned” the “theft of (their) work.”
The Writers Guild of America stated:
Disney’s announcement with OpenAI appears to sanction its theft of our work and cedes the value of what we create to a tech company that has built its business off our backs.
And they’ll meet with Disney:
..to probe the terms of this deal, including the extent to which user-generated videos use the work of WGA members. We will continue to fight to protect our members’ creative and economic interests in the context of AI technology.
In a message to its members, the WGA has said:
Companies including OpenAI have stolen vast libraries of works owned by the studios and created by WGA members and Hollywood labor to train their artificial intelligence systems. We have repeatedly called for the studios to take legal action to defend the valuable intellectual property we help to create.
SAG-AFTRA said:
SAG-AFTRA will closely monitor the deal and its implementation to ensure compliance with our contracts and with applicable laws protecting image, voice and likeness,” the union said. “SAG-AFTRA members are very focused on the rapidly expanding use of intellectual property and individuals’ likenesses and voices by generative AI tools, and SAG-AFTRA remains vigilant about any such uses.
We acknowledge Disney’s and OpenAI’s independent outreaches to us on this matter and their assurances that they will meet their contractual and legal obligations to performers and continue to implement systems to ensure ethical and responsible use of this technology.
SAG-AFTRA has engaged in months of discussions with OpenAI about how to protect performers.
