Disney is extremely protective of its characters, which makes it a little surprising that the company entered into a three-year licensing deal today with OpenAI. The agreement will allow those using OpenAI's Sora platform to create short videos featuring more than 200 animated, masked and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars, These will include costumes, props, vehicles, and iconic environments. The deal combines some of the most valuable intellectual property (IP) in Hollywood with the cutting-edge AI technology owned by OpenAI.
Sora users will be able to create AI videos using iconic Disney characters
Using OpenAI's Sora video creation platform, users will be able to create short, user-prompted videos that can be shared with others. In addition, ChatGPT Images will be able to turn a few words typed or said by the user into fully generated AI images in just seconds. The agreement does not cover the likenesses or voices who portray specific Disney characters or lend their voices to an animated Disney character.
Will you make videos of Disney characters using Sora?
Sure. Why not? Sounds fun.
0%
No. I have better things to do with my time.
0%
The videos created on Sora could also end up on Disney+ as a way to add fan-created content and increase the site's inventory of videos. Also, the deal will turn Disney into an OpenAI customer allowing the entertainment giant to use ChatGPT inside the company. It also will allow the so-called "House of Mouse" to employ OpenAI APIs to create new features for the Disney+ streaming video website and app.
These Disney characters will be available for use in AI videos using Sora and ChatGPT Images
The characters that Disney fans will be able to use in their AI video creations include:
Mickey Mouse
Minnie Mouse
Lilo
Stitch
Ariel
Belle
Beast
Cinderella
Baymax
Simba
Mufasa
Characters from Encanto, Frozen, Inside Out, Moana, Monsters Inc., Toy Story, Up, Zootopia, and many more will be included along with animated versions of Marvel and Lucasfilm characters like Black Panther, Captain America, Deadpool, Groot, Iron Man, Loki, Thor, Thanos, Darth Vader, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Leia, the Mandalorian, Stormtroopers, Yoda, and more.
As part of their agreement, Disney and OpenAI agreed to be committed to responsible use of AI in a way that protects the safety of users and rights of creators. As part of the deal, Disney will invest $1 billion in OpenAI equity and will receive warrants allowing it to purchase additional equity in the company. OpenAI will implement measures to protect users including the use of age-appropriate policies and other reasonable controls. OpenAI and Disney have both agreed to prevent the generation of illegal or harmful content.
Disney sends Google a cease-and-desist letter
Also today, Disney accused Google of infringing its copyrights "on a massive scale" by using AI models to "commercially exploit and distribute" images and videos that infringe on Disney's intellectual property. On Wednesday, Google was sent a cease-and-desist-letter from Disney attorneys demanding that Google immediately stop the alleged infringements generated by its AI models.
A letter from Disney's law firm, Jenner & Block, said, "Google is infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale, by copying a large corpus of Disney’s copyrighted works without authorization to train and develop generative artificial intelligence (‘AI’) models and services, and by using AI models and services to commercially exploit and distribute copies of its protected works to consumers in violation of Disney’s copyrights."
"Disney will not tolerate the unauthorized commercial exploitation of its copyrighted characters and works by so-called AI services. Here, Google’s conduct is particularly harmful because Google is leveraging its market dominance across multiple channels to distribute its AI Services and using the draw and popularity of infringed copyrighted works to help maintain that dominance."
-Disney in cease and desist letter to Google
The letter, written by the law firm on behalf of the Burbank-based company, added, "Google operates as a virtual vending machine, capable of reproducing, rendering, and distributing copies of Disney’s valuable library of copyrighted characters and other works on a mass scale. And compounding Google’s blatant infringement, many of the infringing images generated by Google’s AI Services are branded with Google’s Gemini logo, falsely implying that Google’s exploitation of Disney’s intellectual property is authorized and endorsed by Disney."
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AI photo generated by Google of Darth Vader that Disney included in its Cease and Desist letter to Google. | Image credit-Disney
In the letter, which was read by Variety, Disney accuses Google of infringing on Disney properties such as "Frozen," "The Lion King," "Moana," "The Little Mermaid," "Deadpool," "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Toy Story," "Brave," "Ratatouille," "Monsters Inc.," "Lilo & Stich," "Inside Out" and franchises like Star Wars, the Simpsons, and Marvel’s Avengers and Spider-Man. The letter from Disney included examples of AI images created from text prompts, Disney included examples of images it claims were generated by text prompts in Google’s AI apps. We've embedded one image Disney included in its letter of Darth Vader.
The letter demands that Google "immediately cease further copying, publicly displaying, publicly performing, distributing, and creating derivative works of Disney’s copyrighted characters” in “outputs of Google’s AI Services, including through YouTube’s mobile app, YouTube Shorts and YouTube."
Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.
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