{"id":261229,"date":"2025-11-13T22:12:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T22:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/261229\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T22:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T22:12:11","slug":"disney-is-getting-in-on-ai-slop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/261229\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Is Getting in on AI Slop"},"content":{"rendered":"

During an earnings call with shareholders today, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the company\u2019s streaming platform, Disney+<\/a>, is preparing to expand with new elements\u2014including ways for subscribers to share and create Disney-themed content with generative AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing that we\u2019re 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,\u201d Iger told shareholders (via the Hollywood Reporter<\/a>), \u201cincluding the ability for them to create user-generated content and to consume user-generated content\u2014mostly short-form\u2014from others.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the CEO, Disney+ will also soon include new gamified experiences as part of the studio\u2019s partnership with Epic Games, which so far has mostly existed<\/a> as a series of Disney collaborations for Fortnite, including seasons based on\u00a0Star Wars<\/a> and\u00a0The Simpsons<\/a>. The\u00a0Star Wars season of\u00a0Fortnite infamously introduced an AI-voiced Darth Vader companion<\/a>, who had to be promptly updated when players immediately started getting the generated voice of the late James Earl Jones to use slurs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Iger described the additions as \u201cthe biggest and the most significant changes\u2014from a product perspective, from a technology perspective\u2014since we launched the service in 2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Externally, Disney, like other Hollywood studios, has been openly bullish about the rise of generative AI, joining lawsuits alongside other studios such as Universal and Warner Bros. to sue AI companies like Midjourney and MiniMax, arguing that their generative AI platforms are infringing on their copyrighted works by allowing users to create images of popular characters. But internally, beyond this new development, we\u2019ve known for a while that Disney has been exploring the use of generative AI in its productions.<\/p>\n

A report from the Wall Street Journal<\/a> in August this year alleged that Disney executives had attempted to pitch the use of generative AI systems on two of its projects, the live-action\u00a0Moana remake and the then-upcoming\u00a0Tron: Ares, only to find that the technology\u2019s use was stymied and ultimately dropped<\/a> from both films out of a combination of concerns about Disney\u2019s copyrights and potential public backlash.<\/p>\n

Disney seems to have started trying to figure out its concerns about the former. In today\u2019s call, Iger said that the studio had had \u201cproductive conversations\u201d with AI companies (which ones, exactly, Iger did not disclose) before noting he was hopeful those conversations could result in a deal that would \u201creflect our need to protect the IP.\u201d What Disney has yet to figure out is the latter concern of the public.<\/p>\n

Disney subsidiary Marvel Studios has already found itself facing blowback to the use of generative AI technology in the past, first in 2023, when the studio was lambasted<\/a> for the opening credits of\u00a0the Samuel Jackson MCU vehicle Secret Invasion, which were created with AI imagery. Earlier this year, Marvel had to defend itself<\/a> from backlash alleging that a series of posters for The Fantastic Four: First Steps featured signs indicating the use of generative AI.<\/p>\n

The move to test that public reaction comes at a time when Disney has found public confidence<\/a> in the studio damaged\u2014in part due to liberal concerns over the company\u2019s ongoing capitulations<\/a> to the second Trump administration, and more pointedly recently when the studio faced a series<\/a> of public boycotts<\/a> over its decision to temporarily suspend late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over commentary he made on the death of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n

Will the ability to make uncanny short videos of Grogu and Spider-Man be enough? Disney seemingly intends to find out.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During an earnings call with shareholders today, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the company\u2019s streaming platform, Disney+,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,92205,6460,6697,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-261229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-bob-iger","12":"tag-disney","13":"tag-generative-ai","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}