Disney allows characters to be in OpenAl videos

Deal is watershed for Hollywood, as it tries to come to grips with generative Al

- BROOKS BARNES CADE METZ

A statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse at Disneyland. Disney is the first major Hollywood company to license content to an AI platform.

(PHOTO: ©2023 THE NEW YORK TIMES)

In a watershed moment for Hollywood and generative artificial intelligence, Disney said Thursday that it would buy a $1 billion stake in OpenAl and bring its characters to Sora, the AI company’s short-form video platform.

A curated selection of videos made with Sora will be available to stream on Disney+ as part of the three-year deal. Disney also said it would work with OpenAI to “build new products, tools and experiences” as part of the agreement and integrate ChatGPT into its workflow.

“The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence marks an important moment for our industry, and through this collaboration with OpenAI we will thoughtfully and responsibly extend the reach of our storytelling,” Disney CEO Robert Iger said in a statement.

Disney is the first major Hollywood company to cross this particular Rubicon. Disney, Universal, Warner Bros Discovery and the like have spent the past couple of years trying to sort through major concerns about how generative AI software is built, how copyright holders are compensated and how Hollywood unions may react. Disney and Universal are suing Midjourney, an AI image generator that has tens of millions of registered users, for allowing people to create images that “blatantly incorporate and copy” characters owned by the companies. (Midjourney has rejected the claim, saying its actions fall under “fair use.”)

On Wednesday, Disney accused Google of copyright infringement on a “massive scale” in a cease-and-desist letter that was viewed by