NEWS: OpenAI and Disney Reach Deal, Characters to Be Used in AI Content

The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI just reached an agreement that will bring Disney characters to Sora. The agreement is a three-year licensing agreement that will allow Sora to “generate short, user-prompted social videos” that can be viewed and shared.

The agreement will allow Sora to utilize more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars characters. Additionally, a selection of these fan-inspired Sora videos will be available to stream on Disney+.

Sora is an AI model from OpenAI that lets users create “immersive” videos from text prompts. In the latest version, Sora 2, users can also have the AI model generate audio for the videos. With this new agreement, more than 200 Disney characters will also be able to be used when generating AI videos on Sora. Disney’s characters will also be able to be used when generating images with ChatGPT Images.

In addition to allowing these characters to be used on Sora and featuring videos made with Sora on Disney+, Disney has also agreed to become a major customer of OpenAI. Disney will be using its APIs to “build new products, tools, and experiences, including for Disney+, and deploying ChatGPT for its employees.” Disney will also make a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI and receive warrants to purchase additional equity.

In Disney’s press release, they state that this agreement will bring Disney and OpenAI “together to unlock new possibilities in imaginative storytelling.” Sora will soon be able to draw “from a set of more than 200 animated, masked and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars, including costumes, props, vehicles, and iconic environments.” Sora and ChatGPT Images are expected to start generating content with Disney’s characters in early 2026.

OpenAI and Disney have affirmed “a shared commitment to maintaining robust controls to prevent the generation of illegal or harmful content, to respect the rights of content owners in relation to the outputs of models, and to respect the rights of individuals to appropriately control the use of their voice and likeness.”

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