There have been many events in 2025 that would make you look at the world and go, “What is happening here?” Many would rightfully question the sanity of certain people (including world leaders) and wonder just how greedy certain businesses are willing to get to make more money. Well, we got the answer to the latter part of that question, as Disney has revealed that it’s made a billion-dollar deal with OpenAI to allow its program to create videos, merch, and more based on the various properties of the “House of Mouse.”
While at first, the collaboration seems to be only for making videos for social media, it also states that it will “build new products, tools, and experiences, including for Disney+, and deploying ChatGPT for its employees.”
The man behind this deal is Disney CEO Bob Iger, who is known for various controversies involving human labor, including saying that writers were being “unreasonable” during the last Hollywood strike, when all they were asking for was a living wage. In a statement about the OpenAI deal, he noted:
“Technological innovation has continually shaped the evolution of entertainment, bringing with it new ways to create and share great stories with the world. 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 through generative AI, while respecting and protecting creators and their works.”
That sounds pretty tone deaf, wouldn’t you say? Iger even doubled down by noting how this would be “great for fans” and would help them “connect with beloved characters even more.” If you want to see what characters will be “up for use” via the agreement, go here.
In truth, this is very upsetting. Disney is already infamous for how it treats many within its staff, including its animators and VFX workers, who have been overworked, underpaid, and in the case of Inside Out 2, FIRED before they could get the bonuses from the movie’s billion-dollar box office gross.
This is just another shot across the bow, proving that they want to cut costs by using machines instead of people, even when AI is far from a perfect creativity tool, as companies like McDonald’s found out recently, when it made an AI ad and got a whole lot of backlash, and then took it down.
Source: ComicBook.com
