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Disney gives the green light for AI to ruin all your favorite characters
2 hours ago
- Disney and OpenAI are cooperating to allow some Disney content to appear in ChatGPT-generated images and videos.
- A selection of Sora-generated video content is coming to the Disney+ app.
- The deal will see Disney purchase equity in OpenAI, making it part owner.
Disney has been pretty litigious when it comes to AI platforms appropriating its intellectual property. In June, the company sued AI image generator Midjourney, seeking to stop the platform from creating images using characters from its IPs. Then, in September, it sent a cease-and-desist to AI chatbot provider Character.AI, again citing the platform’s unauthorized use of its characters. But now, ChatGPT developer OpenAI has announced that its products will soon be able to create images and videos of all your favorite Disney characters — with Disney’s blessing.
OpenAI detailed the arrangement in a blog post this morning. Disney and OpenAI are partnering up to allow both ChatGPT Images and Sora to generate content containing characters, props, locations, and more from Disney’s vast IP empire, which includes Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel, beginning early next year.
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Crucially, while you may be able to create a gen-AI video featuring an MCU-style Iron Man, Sora won’t be able to insert Robert Downey Jr. into your scenario: The deal does not give OpenAI the right to reproduce “talent likenesses or voices,” meaning that live-action human characters are off the table. OpenAI does say you’ll be able to conjure up “illustrated versions” of the likes of Captain America, Thor, Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker, however.
As it stands today, OpenAI’s products will typically refuse to cooperate when you enter a prompt that would result in a generated image or video that features copyrighted characters. (Google’s Gemini isn’t quite so cautious, as you can see above.)
The deal is also bringing a selection of generated AI content to the Disney+ app, and OpenAI says that its AI models will introduce “new experiences” to Disney’s streaming platform, though the announcement is light on specifics to that end.
Per the terms of the deal, Disney will make a billion-dollar equity investment in OpenAI, making Disney a partial owner of the AI firm, with the potential to purchase more equity later on.
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