Disney bets big on AI but not everyone sees a winner

Want to make the next sequel to “Frozen” yourself? Now the Walt Disney Company is giving fans a way to do so — sort of. The Mouse House announced it is exploring tools that could allow Disney+ users to upload their own AI-generated content onto the platform. This could potentially include AI content from Disney’s IP, allowing users to tap into the company’s original characters as well as franchises owned by Disney like “Star Wars” and “Marvel.” But while Disney appears to be all-in on its AI bet, the idea has some people shaking their heads.

‘A much more engaged experience’

Artificial intelligence is “going to give us the ability to provide users of Disney+ with a much more engaged experience,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger in the company’s fourth quarter earnings call. This includes the “ability for them to create user-generated content and to consume user-generated content — mostly short-form — from others.” While nothing official has been announced, Disney has had “productive conversations” with AI brands that would also “reflect our need to protect the IP.”

Disney is likely trying to appeal to “younger audiences, especially Gen Z,” who are “gravitating toward spaces where they can participate, remix and respond rather than simply watch,” said NPR. This additionally “points to the growing popularity of indie creators, and a change in consumer expectations around quality: Content doesn't always have to be polished to be extremely popular.”

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

AI companies are also likely eager to partner with Disney, as they “can work with the creative community to come up with models that work for both of them,” said Copyright Alliance CEO Keith Kupferschmid to NPR. The entertainment industry is “going to start seeing more and more deals come through because they realize they can do this and do it the right way.” Iger has additionally “hinted at other ways Disney could expand its streaming app beyond just TV shows and movies,” said The Verge, including gaming features.

‘Another grim omen’

Despite Iger’s enthusiasm, many “artists, animators and Disney fans didn’t take the news well,” said Forbes. Many commentators were “deeply disappointed that Disney, the legendary animation studio that grew into a sprawling media empire, would embrace the automation of art.” Some “viewed the arrival of AI to Disney+ as another grim omen, fearing that the spread of generative AI would result in more job losses, and a deluge of low-quality content on the streaming platform.”

It is “heartbreaking to think of the wonderful artists who put so much obvious love and care into every frame of the old Disney cartoons,” cartoonist Vincent Alexander said on X. “I'm glad they aren’t around to see this.” Others in the art community “called for a boycott, urging Disney+ subscribers to cancel their subscription,” said Forbes.

Disney’s AI gamble “could be bigger than you think,” said The Hollywood Reporter, but the “consequences of this AI video moment go well beyond Disney.” Americans are “slowly becoming accustomed, cringey viral video by cringey viral video, to the idea that stories and personalities are not fixed entities, there to be interpreted as one likes but little else.” For “all the drama attending the AI announcement, it remains deeply unclear how people will use it.”