Disney Agrees to Bring Its Characters to OpenAI’s Sora Videos

The deal is a watershed for Hollywood, which has been trying to sort through the possible harms and upsides of generative artificial intelligence.

In a watershed moment for Hollywood and generative artificial intelligence, Disney said on Thursday that it would buy a $1 billion stake in OpenAI and bring its characters to Sora, the A.I. company’s short-form video platform.

A curated selection of videos made with Sora will be available to stream on Disney+ as part of the three-year deal, giving the streaming service a foothold in a type of content that younger audiences, in particular, enjoy viewing and that has proved powerful for competitors like YouTube and TikTok. Sora users will be able to start generating videos with Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and Yoda early next year.

“The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence marks an important moment for our industry, and through this collaboration with OpenAI we will thoughtfully and responsibly extend the reach of our storytelling,” Robert A. Iger, the chief executive of Disney, said in a statement.

Disney is the first major Hollywood company to cross this particular Rubicon. Many actors, animators and writers have raised alarms about the possibility of A.I.-generated shows and movies replacing them en masse. So far, those fears have not come to pass, partly because companies like Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery have proceeded very slowly.

Disney and Universal, for instance, are suing Midjourney, an A.I. image generator, for allowing people to create images that “blatantly incorporate and copy” characters owned by the companies. Midjourney has rejected the claim, saying its actions fall under “fair use.”

On Wednesday, Disney accused Google of copyright infringement on a “massive scale” in a cease-and-desist letter that was viewed by The New York Times. Disney’s lawyers demanded that Google stop using copyrighted works, including those from “The Lion King” and “Guardians of the Galaxy,” to train and develop generative artificial intelligence models and services.” Disney has sent similar letters to companies like Meta and Character.AI.

Google did not respond to a request for comment.

Notably, the agreement Disney announced with OpenAI on Thursday did not include any talent likenesses or voices, and Mr. Iger — perhaps anticipating pushback in Hollywood to the agreement — repeatedly emphasized that Disney would collaborate “thoughtfully and responsibly” with OpenAI.

“This does not, in any way, represent a threat to creators — in fact, the opposite,” Mr. Iger said in a CNBC interview. “I think it honors them and respects them, in part because there’s a license associated with it.” He added, “Let’s be mindful of the fact that these are 30-second videos.”

Members of Hollywood’s animation community were quick to challenge that notion. “The artists who created these characters won’t see a dime,” Roma Murphy, who sits on the Animation Guild’s executive board, said in an interview. The Animation Guild represents more than 6,000 artists, writers and animation production workers.

Ms. Murphy said Disney’s partnership with Sora, which is exclusive for the first of its three years, could dilute the carefully controlled stories and quality associated with Disney’s brand.

“I’ve written for Disney shows in the past, and we are held to a very high standard,” Ms. Murphy said. “We get notes from Disney, and we sometimes have to start over altogether. Is that same standard going to be applied to these videos? What will the psychological implications be for kids who watch them?”

Disney is mindful of the risks. Its agreement with OpenAI includes limits on character behavior. No drugs, sex, alcohol or interactions with characters owned by other media companies, for instance.

But the popularity of generative A.I. tools like Sora in some ways forced Disney to come to the table — to try to exert some control over the flood of user-generated videos using its imagery and make money off it. To remain relevant to young audiences, Disney believes it must allow its characters to join the A.I. revolution. Other traditional media companies could follow.

While Disney’s initial investment in OpenAI is small — the start-up is valued at more than $500 billion — Disney has the ability to increase its stake as part of the deal. “It gives us an opportunity to play a part in what really is breathtaking, breathtaking growth,” Mr. Iger said on CNBC. The deal, which remains subject to approval from Disney’s and OpenAI’s boards, was the result of nearly two years of talks between the companies.

First available to users in February 2024, Sora is a technology that lets people generate photorealistic videos simply by typing a sentence into a box on a computer screen. Similar technology is offered by the tech giants Google and Meta, start-ups like the New York-based Runway and many companies in China.

This fall, OpenAI released a consumer version of Sora designed to generate short-form videos for social media. More than a million people downloaded it within five days, almost instantly using the app to generate videos that recreated copyrighted material. Rights holders were outraged, even though OpenAI provided a process for them to submit opt-out requests.

Sora users will be able to make videos with more than 200 characters from Disney’s library, including from “Encanto,” “Frozen,” “Moana,” “Toy Story,” “Zootopia,” “Inside Out” and other animated movies. Animated or illustrated versions of Marvel characters like Deadpool, Iron Man and Black Panther will also be available, along with “Star Wars” characters like Darth Vader and Princess Leia.

That means Sora users could make videos of themselves in a lightsaber battle with Luke Skywalker or a custom birthday video using Buzz Lightyear.

Disney declined to provide details about how fan-created videos would be selected to stream on Disney+. The deal ultimately calls for Disney to license OpenAI technology to allow Disney+ users to create videos directly on Disney’s site.

Mr. Iger told analysts on a recent earnings-related conference call that user-generated video could help Disney+ increase “engagement,” or the degree to which audiences stick with and respond to content. It is not lost on Disney that children now spend more time on YouTube than they do watching Disney+ or one of Disney’s traditional cable channels.

Sora users will be able to start generating videos with Disney characters early next year including from, clockwise top left, “Inside Out,” “Frozen,” “Deadpool” and “Star Wars.”"Credit...Disney/Pixar, Disney, via Associated Press, Lucasfilm, via Alamy, Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios and Marvel

“This agreement shows how A.I. companies and creative leaders can work together responsibly to promote innovation that benefits society” and “helps works reach vast new audiences,” Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, said in a statement.

Although the Sora app spent several weeks at or near the top of the list of the most popular free apps in the Apple App Store, it has since moved down the list. Its popularity has also waned on Android phones.

Later on Thursday, Runway mounted a significant challenge to Sora, unveiling technology that exceeds the performance of OpenAI’s video generator, according to standard industry benchmarks. Like OpenAI, Runway sells its technology to filmmakers, video game designers and other professionals in and around Hollywood.

Tripp Mickle contributed reporting.

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