Disney’s landmark deal to license its characters to OpenAI could rewrite relations between media and AI companies. But more specifically, the kids industry has concerns.

The partnership announced yesterday will see Disney add more than 200 of its popular characters into Sora and ChatGPT so users can generate videos and images featuring Darth Vader, Elsa, Mickey Mouse and more. Disney is also investing US$1 billion in OpenAI and pledging to become a “major customer” of the tool. Significantly, Disney also said it will add some of the Sora-made creations to Disney+.

Based on reactions from unions and guilds that represent large swaths of the entertainment industry, a picture is emerging of a sector that’s unhappy it won’t see any compensation from this new use of content it helped to make. For some of these groups, it’s just another example of how creatives aren’t adequately compensated when their work is licensed by studios.

The Writers Guild of America East didn’t pull any punches. “Companies including OpenAI have stolen vast libraries of works owned by the studios, and created by WGA members and Hollywood labor, to train their artificial intelligence systems,” it said in a statement attacking the deal. “We have repeatedly called for the studios to take legal action to defend the valuable intellectual property we help to create.” The letter points out that a recent letter sent by Disney to Google ordering it to cease allowing its AI platforms to generate content infringing on its IPs is a step in the right direction. “At the same time, Disney’s announcement with OpenAI appears to sanction its theft of our work, and cedes the value of what we create to a tech company that has built its business off our backs.”

Actors guild SAG-AFTRA took a more nuanced position, noting that the deal comes after months of discussions between the guild and OpenAI about protecting performers—and indeed, the Disney agreement doesn’t allow users to reproduce actors’ likenesses. While promising to keep an eye on how the deal plays out because its members are concerned about AI, the org notes in a statement: “We acknowledge Disney’s and OpenAI’s independent outreaches to us on this matter, and their assurances that they will meet their contractual and legal obligations to performers and continue to implement systems to ensure ethical and responsible use of this technology.”

One of the Sora-made images Disney and OpenAI shared in yesterday’s release. What Disney says is a way for fans to engage with characters they like, unions are calling a threat to creators. Courtesy of Disney and OpenAI.

The Animation Guild is very much not in favor of the deal, saying it raises “several major concerns” for animation workers, consumers and families. The guild notes that many of Disney’s iconic characters and worlds were created by its members, and not only haven’t these members received compensation from the licensing of these characters, they also won’t benefit from the user-generated content made with AI—content which was “powered by their creativity and labor.” TAG also asked whether Disney will pay users who create hit content featuring its IPs.

Equity in the UK noted that creatives’ rights have to be protected, and that promises from the companies that they will be just aren’t enough. Unions need to be involved in licensing deals like this, and “these assurances are empty unless real protections for artists are enshrined in union-enforced collective agreements.”

In yesterday’s release about the news, Disney emphasized that this partnership with OpenAI is a way for it to embrace storytelling through generative AI, “while respecting and protecting creators and their works.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger doubled down on these sentiments yesterday, joining OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on CNBC to speak about the benefits of the deal. Iger said that Disney, which has a track record of being first to adopt new technologies, had to get ahead of AI and benefit from it instead of just letting unauthorized and unprofitable AI copies of its content proliferate. “If it’s going to happen regardless, then we’d [prefer to] participate in the rather dramatic growth, [instead of] just watching it happen and essentially being disrupted by it. So we think this is actually a way for us to be part of these developments, as opposed to [being] harmed by them.”

The deal doesn’t threaten creatives, Iger also argued. “I think it honors them and respects them, in part because there’s a license fee associated with it.”

Kidscreen has reached out to Disney for its response to the unions, but as of press time, Disney has not responded.

Image courtesy of Disney.