Billion-dollar OpenAI deal allows users to make content with Disney characters
If you’ve ever wanted to conjure up a scenario between yourself, Han Solo and the crew from Zootopia, you’re in luck.
The Walt Disney Company has reached a licensing agreement with OpenAI that brings Disney characters and images to Sora, the artificial intelligence company’s short-form-video generator. According to a joint statement released by the two companies, the three-year licensing agreement will allow people to create and share videos using “more than 200” animated characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars.
Notably, the statement adds “the agreement does not include any talent likeness or voices.”
As a part of this agreement, Disney will invest $1 billion into OpenAI and become a “major customer” of the company.
Fairplay, the non-profit advocacy group dedicated to reducing children’s screen time, issued a statement saying the Disney OpenAI agreement “betrays kids.”
“OpenAI claims children are prohibited from using Sora, yet here they are luring young kids to their platform using some of their favorite characters. Shame on the ‘House of Mouse’ for aiding and abetting OpenAI’s efforts to addict young children to its unsafe platform and products,” the statement reads.
Disney and OpenAI say in their statement that the two companies share a commitment to protecting the rights of creators while “maintaining robust controls to prevent the generation of illegal or harmful content.”
Sora users will be able to take advantage of the agreement starting in 2026.
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