OpenAI Group PBC has secured a $1 billion investment from The Walt Disney Co. as part of a deal that will also see it license key intellectual property from the entertainment giant.
The companies announced the partnership today. According to OpenAI, Disney is receiving warrants that will enable it to purchase an unspecified amount of additional equity further down the line. It didn’t disclose the valuation at which the funding was raised.
Under the agreement, OpenAI will obtain a three-year license to more than 200 characters from popular Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm franchises. The deal also covers associated costumes, props, vehicles and environments. OpenAI will enable users to incorporate those assets into clips they create with its Sora video generation model.
In a blog post, the ChatGPT developer stated that the model will provide the ability to “generate short, user-prompted social videos that can be viewed and shared by fans.” Some user creations will become available via the Disney+ streaming service.
OpenAI introduced the latest version of Sora, Sora 2, in September. The model is better than its predecessor at simulating physical phenomena such as buoyancy. It’s also less prone to making certain mistakes, such as generating unrealistic motion effects when users enter overly ambitious prompts.
The AI phenom will also bring Disney characters to ChatGPT’s built-in image generator. Both the image generator and Sora will start providing access to the content early next year. According to Axios, OpenAI and Disney have formed a joint committee focused on ensuring that user creations comply with the latter company’s brand guidelines.
The partnership comes a day after the entertainment giant reportedly sent Google LLC a cease-and-desist letter over Gemini’s image generation features. According to Variety, the document alleges that the AI model series recreates Disney characters without permission. Disney has asked Google to stop the practice.
It’s notable that the OpenAI partnership was announced so soon after the cease-and-desist letter. Disney might be hoping that its deal with the ChatGPT developer, one of Google’s top rivals in the AI market, might prompt the search giant to ink a similar licensing deal. Microsoft Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. might also opt to license Disney characters in the future given that they both offer consumer-facing image generation features.
Anthropic PBC is less likely to follow in OpenAI’s steps. The company’s Claude model series can generate images much like ChatGPT, but it’s mainly geared toward enterprise use cases.
In addition to providing OpenAI with funding and a content license, Disney will roll out ChatGPT to its employees. It will also use the AI provider’s application programming interfaces to build new products. OpenAI’s APIs provide access to the large language models that power ChatGPT, Sora and other algorithms.
Photo: Disney
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