You ain’t never had a friend like me.
Disney has announced a deal that will see the House of Mouse invest $1 billion in OpenAI, as well as allow many of its characters to be used in ChatGPT and video tool Sora. This is the first such licensing deal between one of the major studios and an AI company, and comes less than a month after Disney CEO Bob Iger told shareholders AI is an „engagement engine“ and Disney+ is soon gonna be crammed with it.
To put the cash to one side for a moment, over 200 Disney characters will now be used in OpenAI’s products. This includes Mickey Mouse as well as more recent characters like Moana, and then there’s Star Wars (the likes of Luke Skywalker included), Marvel, and the Pixar catalogue. Hey, has anyone here seen Wall-E?
There is one very notable caveat to the agreement: Disney specifies it „does not include any talent likenesses or voices.“ There are a host of obvious reasons why: primarily the likely objection of said talent, such as Mark Hamill, and the inevitable battle for rights that would ensue.
Plus you get into a real grey area with characters like Mickey, who was for decades voiced by Walt Disney himself. I appreciate the following sentence may make some raise a cartoon eyebrow, but Bob Iger has previously given the impression of being fiercely protective of Disney’s heritage and creative integrity.
In the light of today’s announcement, here’s a memory about Iger and contemporary observation from ex-Microsoft exec and father of the Xbox Seamus Blackley.
