The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI have reached a three-year licensing agreement allowing users to generate videos with Disney-owned characters in Sora. Disney CEO Bob Iger appeared on CNBC with the CEO OpenAI to talk more about the deal and how it will affect the company and consumers alike.

Sora Deal

In case you missed it, Disney and OpenAI are teaming up to bring more than 200 Disney characters to life through Sora, a generative AI video platform allowing users to make short-form social videos.

In the interview with CNBC, Iger was asked what led Disney to make this deal with OpenAI:

“This is a great opportunity for the company to enable consumers to engage with our characters on what is probably the most modern of technology and media platforms today. It not only gives consumers and users an opportunity to do so, but it also is significant because in this deal, OpenAI is both respecting and valuing our creativity, both of our characters, but also those that have created those characters.”

So it gives us an opportunity, really, to play a part in what is really a breathtaking growth in essentially AI and new forms of media and entertainment.

When asked if this deal represent any risks to the company and consumers, Iger answered:

“Well, first of all what we are doing here is licensing about 200 characters for users of Sora to create their own, basically, videos using Sora and those characters. We are not including name and likeness, nor are we including voices. So, in reality, this does not in any way represent a threat to the creators at all. In fact, the opposite, I think it honors them and respects them in part because there’s a license fee associated with it.

The other thing it does is it enables us to be comfortable that OpenAI is putting guardrails essentially around how these are used, so that really there’s nothing for us to be concerned about from a consumer perspective, meaning this will be a safe environment and a safe way for consumers to engage with our characters in a new way.“

He also discussed the fact that these are very short clips, which have seen a massive amount of growth:

“And also, let’s be mindful of the fact that these are 30 second videos. We’re not talking about creating shorts or movies, for that matter. And we know because we’ve seen a significant amount of growth in consumption of short form video. We also think this is an era where almost everybody can be a creator of sorts, and we’ve seen that in breathtaking fashion on other platforms, and this is a way for us as a company, really, to provide experiences to particularly younger audiences, engaging with our characters in new ways.”

In regards to if this agreement will lead to more activity, Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, confirms that users will respond very well to being able to use these Disney characters in a new way.

Do you think this deal is a good idea? Let us know in the comments and on social media.

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