Disney has announced a deal that will see the House of Mouse invest $1 billion in OpenAI, as well as allow many of its characters to be used in ChatGPT and video tool Sora. This is the first such licensing deal between one of the major studios and an AI company, and comes less than a month after Disney CEO Bob Iger told shareholders AI is an "engagement engine" and Disney+ is soon gonna be crammed with it.
To put the cash to one side for a moment, over 200 Disney characters will now be used in OpenAI's products. This includes Mickey Mouse as well as more recent characters like Moana, and then there's Star Wars (the likes of Luke Skywalker included), Marvel, and the Pixar catalogue. Hey, has anyone here seen Wall-E?
