Subscribers of Disney Plus will soon be able to generate videos for the platform using AI, according to CEO Bob Iger. He mentioned plans for such features in an earnings call for the year’s end, as part of agreements between tech providers and the House of Mouse.
Disney Plus is due to see "the biggest and the most significant changes" to the service since launching in 2019, Iger revealed, per The Hollywood Reporter. These are "from a product perspective, from a technology perspective," and will involve allowing users some way to make and share videos.
"The other thing that we're really excited about, that AI is going to give us the ability to do, is to provide users of Disney Plus with a much more engaged experience," Iger adds. "Including the ability for them to create user-generated content and to consume user generated content - mostly short-form - from others."
Apparently, there've already been "productive conversations" between Disney and some companies trading in generative-AI software, and Iger's hoping to find a way of incorporating these add-ons that reflects "our need to protect the IP." This is really just an evolution of the corporation’s existing precedent, as Marvel show Secret Wars came under fire for using AI assets in the opening credits.
Iger's comments are already causing backlash. "Unsubscribe from Disney Plus," Dana Terrace, creator of Disney original The Owl House, posted on X/Twitter. "Pirate Owl House. I don’t care. Fuck gen AI."
Sounds like you'll soon be able to make your own janky, terrible looking Mickey Mouse or The Lion King film for others to gawk at. How this is all rolled out, and to what ends it achieves, remain to be seen.
In any case, we have a guide to all the new Disney movies, to make sure you can still find some wonder in your life.
