Disney CEO Says AI Deal With OpenAI Is Exclusive For Just One Year: Report

Disney's partnership with OpenAI is reportedly exclusive for just one year. The revelation was made by the company CEO, Robert A. Iger, during an interview, who also shared the media conglomerate's plans in the artificial intelligence (AI) space. The deal, which was publicly announced last week, is multifaceted with benefits for both companies. While OpenAI gets a license to more than 200 copyrighted characters for Sora's AI-generated videos and AI images made by ChatGPT and an investment of $1 billion, Disney gets the AI giant's equity and access to its tools and technologies.

Disney Is Not Opposed to AI

In an interview with CNBC, Iger clarified two points. First, Disney is getting a licence fee to let OpenAI use its library of more than 200 characters across Disney animation, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars. Second, and more importantly, the exclusivity to the AI giant only lasts one year out of three.

The media conglomerate's strategy is clear here. Enter the AI space with an equity-based investment in a company that is sure to give a positive return, earn from the licensing part of the deal, while also gaining access to learn and understand what the technology offers and how the House of Mouse can adapt to it. Then, if Disney finds it financially sensible, they have the option to forge similar licensing deals with other AI companies.

“No human generation has ever stood in the way of technological advance, and we don't intend to try. We've always felt that if it's going to happen, including disruption of our current business models, then we should get on board,” Iger told the publication.

OpenAI also benefits from this as it has the exclusive rights to Disney's characters for the next 12 months, making them a lucrative platform for users who want to generate videos and images of popular characters, such as Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, Simba, Darth Vader, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Captain America, Yoda, and more.

The entertainment giant has also sent a clear signal that unless an AI company legally licenses the characters, their models and tools cannot generate the copyrighted content. Around the same time as the OpenAI partnership announcement, the Mouse House sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google, telling it to stop generating and distributing copyrighted content, as per Variety.

Disney's allegation largely focused on the text-to-image generation tool Nano Banana, which was allegedly generating content resembling the copyrighted characters. “We have been aggressive at protecting our intellectual property (IP), and we have gone after other companies that have not honoured our IP, not respected our IP, not valued it. And this is another example of us doing just that,” Iger told CNBC.