The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI have announced a partnership under which Disney will invest $1 billion in artificial intelligence development. The three-year licensing agreement will allow OpenAI platforms, such as ChatGPT and Sora, to use Disney's characters and intellectual property to generate content based on user prompts. Users will be able to create short videos featuring over 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar. Additionally, ChatGPT's image generation feature will be able to create images from text prompts using the same intellectual property. Disney CEO Robert Iger called this a 'historic agreement,' stating that the partnership 'thoughtfully and responsibly' expands Disney's storytelling through generative AI, 'respecting and protecting creators and their works.' OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, in turn, noted that Disney is 'the world leader in storytelling' and that the company is 'excited' to partner to allow their AI tools 'to expand the ways in which people create and enjoy quality content.' However, the deal has faced opposition from the Writers Guild of America (WGA), which stated it will continue to fight to protect the creative rights of its members in the context of AI technology. The organization said the announcement 'appears to authorize the theft of our work and to cede the value of what we create to a tech company that has built its business at our expense.' Hollywood's largest actors' union, SAG-AFTRA, also said it would 'monitor the agreement and its implementation closely to ensure compliance with our contracts and applicable laws that protect image, voice, and likeness.'
