Welcome to Rendering, a Deadline column reporting at the intersection of AI and showbiz. Rendering examines how artificial intelligence is disrupting the entertainment industry, taking you inside key battlegrounds and spotlighting change makers wielding the technology for good and ill. Got a story about AI? Rendering wants to hear from you: jkanter@deadline.com.
This edition: A glimpse inside Disney‘s AI war with Google.
December 11, 2025, could be remembered as a defining day in Hollywood’s dance with artificial intelligence. It was the day that Disney gave with one hand (inking a head-turning deal with OpenAI to handover characters to Sora) and took away with another (writing to Google demanding that its AI products stop behaving like a “virtual vending machine” for Disney IP).
In any other news cycle, Disney locking horns with Google would have dominated, but such was the gravity of the Mouse House’s OpenAI agreement, that the battle was somewhat in peripheral vision. So today, we wanted to take a closer look at what Disney said to Google (and how Google responded), what the Bob Iger-run company quietly actioned behind the scenes, and consider whether it is actually in Disney’s interests to wage war with a titan of the tech world.
It was no coincidence that, within minutes of the OpenAI deal being announced, Disney let it be known that it would no longer tolerate Google’s AI products exploiting its content. The carefully choreographed message was clear: you’re either with us or against us.
Disney’s outside attorney David Singer wrote a 32-page cease and desist letter to Google detailing the non-exhaustive ways in which tools like Veo, Nano Banana, and Gemini are “infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale.” The letter contained several real-world examples, complete with embedded pictures, explaining how simple text prompts can result in glossy renderings of Disney characters, including Darth Vader and Iron Man.
Disney used examples of alleged ‘Star Wars’ copyright infringement in its demand letter
Disney’s letter set out four demands of Google:
Immediately halt copyright infringement
Make tech changes to discontinue IP exploitation
Stop using Disney content to train Google AI models
Disclose what Disney content was used to train AI models
Behind the scenes, Disney went further. An industry source tells Deadline’s Rendering column that the message went out to third-party producers to disentangle any Google AI tools from their workflows. At the same time, Disney committed to using OpenAI services internally, including giving employees official access to ChatGPT, presumably at the expense of rivals like Google’s Gemini. Disney declined to comment.
Our source said it was quite the spectacle to see Disney move against Google in such a detailed and coordinated manner. They said it looked like the culmination of careful planning and showed how serious Disney was in its efforts to put the squeeze on Google. Indeed, Disney’s legal letter acknowledged the behind-the-scenes efforts, saying it had been “raising concerns” for months.
Four weeks on, is there any evidence that Disney’s pressure has delivered results? Well, yes and no. Disney’s lawyers listed 66 YouTube videos that allegedly ripped off Disney IP using Google’s Veo and Imagen tools. All of these videos have now been removed from YouTube. So, a symbolic win, and perhaps recognition from Google that Disney’s copyright had been infringed.
But then again, Google’s AI services continue to spit out highly accurate renderings of Disney characters from the most basic prompts. On Tuesday, Rendering asked Gemini to depict Homer Simpson crash landing in Hundred Acre Wood. It delivered.
Google Gemini-created image of Homer Simpson in the land of Winnie-the-Pooh
Similar prompts were equally faithful to the original IP. We even successfully tried Google’s viral figurine prompt, which Disney specifically took issue with in its legal writ. Pre-written by Google, the prompt allows Gemini to create a figurine based on an uploaded image. We tried the prompt alongside a Buzz Lightyear picture, with the results below.
Google Gemini-created image of a Buzz Lightyear figurine
In short, while Google has taken enforcement action on YouTube, its AI tools appear to still be drawing on a vast well of Disney IP. By contrast, the same prompts were declined when used in ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. “I can’t create that image because it involves characters owned by Disney, which I’m not allowed to generate or depict,” read Copilot’s denial message.
A Google spokesperson said: “We have a longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship with Disney, and will continue to engage with them. More generally, we use public data from the open web to build our AI and have built additional innovative copyright controls like Google-extended and Content ID for YouTube, which give sites and copyright holders control over their content.”
This is not an issue that is going to be fixed soon, which raises the question: Can Disney afford a long war with Google? Some suspect not. One well-placed source in the AI space admired Disney’s stand, but said it would be foolish to back a single horse (OpenAI) in the artificial intelligence arms race. While not condoning IP theft, they added that Hollywood studios should be looking to strike multiple machine learning licensing deals in the same way that they are promiscuous with content sales.
“Never bet against Google,” was our source’s conclusion. Disney may have shown its hand in December, but there is still much to play for.