Disney boss Bob Iger has said the company’s streaming service will soon allow subscribers to create and view AI-generated content.
Speaking during the company’s latest earnings call, Iger said Disney+ would change to also host user-generated content for the first time, in a step that looks set to open the floodgates for fans keen to make their own creations featuring the likes of Darth Vader, Iron Man and characters from Frozen.
“[We’re] in the midst of rolling out the biggest and the most significant changes — from a product perspective, from a technology perspective — since we launched the service in 2019,” Iger said, per The Hollywood Reporter.
While the exact details are still to be announced, Iger suggested Disney+ subscribers would be able to generate and share content including short-form videos, and that it was currently having “productive conversations” with AI companies to balance user freedom with the need to “protect the IP.”
“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+ with a much more engaged experience, including the ability for them to create user-generated content and to consume user generated content — mostly short-form — from others,” Iger continued.
Only last month, the launch of OpenAI’s Sora 2 generative video app saw it flooded with AI versions of Disney characters, Pokémon and other licensed properties — until the platform began clamping down on copyright-infringing material. Popular videos included examples of Mario and Pikachu in X-Wings or holding lightsabers — something that likely raised eyebrows at Nintendo and Disney.
But while Nintendo has warned it would take “necessary actions against infringement of our intellectual property rights”, Disney appears ready to let fans create their own videos with Anna and Elsa — as long as they’re officially licensed, and said fans are paying Disney+ subscribers.
In September, the famously litigious The Pokémon Company formally responded to the use of Pokémon TV hero Ash Ketchum and the series’ theme tune by the Department of Homeland Security, as part of a video showing people being arrested and handcuffed by law enforcement agents. “Our company was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content,” a spokesperson told IGN, “and permission was not granted for the use of our intellectual property.”
Other changes coming to Disney+ will include “a number of game-like features,” Iger suggested, without explaining further. Disney previously signed a $1.5 billion deal with Fortnite maker Epic Games that will see a major new Disney mode added to the game, and likely allow creators to begin building their own games using Disney assets.
Image credit: Disney
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
