By Gavin Boyle
During Disney’s Q4 earnings report, CEO Bob Iger revealed the company plans to introduce user-generated AI content onto Disney+, allowing subscribers to create AI videos of their favorite Disney characters.
“There’s phenomenal opportunities to deploy AI across our direct-to-consumer platforms, both to provide tools that make the platforms more dynamic and more sticky with consumers, but also to give consumers the opportunity to create on our platforms,” Iger said.
“AI is going to give us the ability…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,” he added.
Related: Disney Almost Included AI-Written Character in Upcoming TRON Movie
It is unclear how Disney will keep these videos safe for families, though the company announced it was currently in talks with unnamed AI companies to protect its IP.
Including a way to share these AI-generated clips with other users comes after Disney announced in September that it would add a way for creators at Pocket.Watch to share their content across the platform. Looking at these two announcements, it appears that Disney is attempting to expand its platform into a hub for non-Disney content as well, potentially serving as a direct competitor with YouTube, the platform that has dominated the streamer wars for the past two years.
At the same time, Disney has been seeking ways to integrate AI throughout its entire workforce and the possibility for the technology to transform its production process as well.
Earlier this year, the company revealed that AI deepfakes were almost implemented in the live-action filming of MOANA, though the company ultimately changed course on this decision. Nonetheless, Iger believes that AI will eventually become a major part of both his company and the entertainment industry and would welcome the integration of the technology sooner rather than later.
Should Disney use AI?
“Walt Disney himself was a big believer in using technology in the early days to tell better stories. And he thought that technology in the hands of a great storyteller was unbelievably powerful…” Iger said. “Don’t fixate on its ability to be disruptive — fixate on [technology’s] ability to make us better and tell better stories. Not only better stories, but to reach more people”
While it is unclear exactly how the new AI features on Disney+ will work, it is interesting to see how Disney is introducing the technology to its audience, and how it seems to be transforming Disney+ to become a direct competitor with YouTube.
Read Next: AI Comes to Disney. How Will It Change the Company?
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