In a landmark partnership, Disney has committed a $1 billion investment into OpenAI, the artificial intelligence research company. The multi-year agreement also grants OpenAI a license to incorporate approximately 200 of Disney’s most iconic characters into its Sora video generation platform.
Sora, an application developed by OpenAI, enables users to create short video clips from simple text descriptions. The new licensing deal will allow fans to generate videos featuring characters from franchises including Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and classic Disney animations within the tool. Users will be able to insert their own likenesses into scenes alongside these characters.
Disney CEO Bob Iger characterized the partnership as a historic step to place “imagination and creativity directly into the hands of Disney fans.” The company emphasized that the agreement does not cover the use of actor likenesses or voices, a point of clarification amid ongoing industry-wide concerns regarding AI’s impact on creative professions.
The collaboration is positioned as an initiative to foster fan creativity. Select user-generated content may be featured on Disney’s streaming platforms, signaling a strategic move to engage with the popular short-form video format dominated by services like TikTok and YouTube Shorts.
This alliance marks a significant corporate endorsement of generative AI technology and sets a precedent for the integration of major entertainment intellectual property into AI-powered creative tools.