OpenAI
Walt Disney will invest billions of dollars in OpenAI and allow the startup to use characters from the Star Wars, Pixar and Marvel franchises in its AI video generator, Sora. The agreement, considered crucial, could reshape the way Hollywood produces content.
At a time when media giants and content producers find themselves in litigation and with several lawsuits ongoing issues relating to the abusive use of content by Artificial Intelligence companies, aea have reached a landmark agreement.
Ironically, under the agreement, Disney not only authorizes or use of its contents by OpenAI AI, as well as pay for it — in the form of an investment of billion dollars at Sam Altman’s company.
According to , the agreement announced this Thursday by the two companies represents a milestone for Hollywoodwhich has tried to evaluate the possible harms and benefits of generative artificial intelligence.
The three-year partnership is a decisive step in Hollywood approach to generative artificial intelligence, bypassing industry concerns about AI’s impact on creative jobs and intellectual property rights.
As part of the licensing agreement, Sora and ChatGPT Images will begin, from the beginning of next year, generate videos with licensed characters from Disney, such as Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and Mufasa, Marvel superheroes or iconic characters from the Star Wars universe.
The agreement, which excludes any physical similarities or talent voices, results in search, over the course of a year, for partners in Hollywood by OpenAI.
“Through this collaboration with OpenAI, we will thoughtfully and responsibly broaden the reach of our narrative through generative AI, respecting and protecting creators and their works”, said the company’s CEO, Bob Iger.
According to a source with knowledge of the process, OpenAI has been in dialogue with Disney and other Hollywood players over the past year in its search for partners.
This movement marks a significant change in Disney’s approach to IA: the company had decided to keep his characters out of the Sora application, at a time when OpenAI was in negotiations with several companies about the copyright policy associated with the tool.
In June, Disney and Universal advanced with a process for copyright infringement against Midjourneyan AI image generation company, due to the use of some of the studios’ best-known characters.
As part of the understanding with OpenAI, a selection of user-created videos will be available for streaming on Disney+which will allow the platform to benefit from the growing appeal of short-form videos in younger generations.
The media conglomerate, whose investment in OpenAi is “tiny”if we consider the appreciation of 500 billion of the AI company, it also had the right to purchase in the future an additional stake in the capital of the company that develops the ChatGPT.
The two companies will use OpenAI models to develop new products and customer experiences, including for Disney+ subscribersand Disney will implement ChatGPT for internal use among its collaborators.
The partnership comes shortly after Creative Artists Agency, Hollywood’s leading talent agency, harshly criticized the same technology which Disney now adopts.
The agency, which represents thousands of actors, directors and musicians, said in October that OpenAI was expose artists to “significant risk” through Sora, asking whether the AI company believes that creative professionals “deserve to be compensated and credited for the work they create.”
