Disney invests 1 billion in OpenAI: Mickey Mouse and Star Wars land on Sora

It’s a move intended to redraw the boundaries between traditional entertainment and artificial intelligence. The Walt Disney Company announced a massive $1 billion investment in OpenAI, sanctioning a partnership that will bring icons such as Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and Luke Skywalker inside Sorathe powerful video generator from the company led by Sam Altman.

The agreement, announced on Thursday evening, makes Disney the first major partner to officially license their content for Sora. The agreement has a three-year duration and opens up new scenarios for fans: it will be possible to create and share short videos based on over 200 characters taken from the Disney universes, Pixar, Marvel e Star Warsusing simple text prompts.

In addition to the playful aspect for users, collaboration has a internal strategic aspect. Disney will become a “key customer” of OpenAI, integrating the technology to develop new products and supplying ChatGPT to your employees. The announcement comes at a delicate moment. While Sora’s ability to generate realistic clips is jaw-dropping Fear is growing over so-called “AI slop” (mass generated junk content), deepfakes and copyright infringement.

To anticipate criticism, the two companies underlined the icommitment to the ethical use of technology. “This agreement demonstrates how AI companies and creative leaders can collaborate responsibly to drive innovation for the benefit of society,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. This is echoed by Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, according to whom the agreement “will expand the reach of our storytelling through generative AI, respecting and while protecting creators and their works“. However, Disney’s strategy on artificial intelligence is not just made up of handshakes. In the same hours in which it announced the idyll with OpenAI, the giant of Burbank has launched a harsh legal attack against Google.

According to a cease-and-desist letter dated Dec. 10 and seen by The Associated Press, Disney told Google to immediately stop using its content without permission to train AI models, including the Veo video generator and Imagen image generators. Disney accuses Big G of “copyright infringement on a large scale,” citing examples where Google’s systems easily generated images of Deadpool, The Simpsons and The Lion King.

Not only that: Disney claims that Google has “intentionally amplified” the damage by allowing the dissemination of this content on platforms such as YouTube and ignoring the complaints raised in recent months. “Google’s massive infringement of Disney’s copyrighted works must stop,” the letter concluded.