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The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI Partner on Sora

(openai.com)
236 points inesranzo | 7 comments | 11 Dec 25 14:05 UTC | HN request time: 0.008s | source | bottom
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gekoxyz ◴[11 Dec 25 14:55 UTC] No.46232125[source]▶
I never thought this could happen, especially after the "Ghibli scandal". OpenAI has pulled a majestic business move. They got to allow people to generate Disney characters without issue AND will give 1 billion dollars to OpenAI?

Now the internet will be flooded by Disney character's videos, and since they don't have to pretend they didn't train on their intellectual property anymore I'm really curious to see where this will bring us.

We should rethink copyright btw.

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Hamuko ◴[11 Dec 25 14:58 UTC] No.46232167[source]▶
>Now the internet will be flooded by Disney character's videos

How is Disney okay with this anyway? They've sent their lawyers after daycare centers who dared to paint a picture of a Disney character on their walls. Why are they suddenly going to ignore me prompting a video of Winnie the Pooh hitting the bong?

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afavour ◴[11 Dec 25 15:01 UTC] No.46232215{3}[source]▶
Because they didn't get any money from the daycare and they will get money from OpenAI when you make your Sora video. That's all there is to it.
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1. Hamuko ◴[11 Dec 25 15:05 UTC] No.46232279{4}[source]▶
I have a feeling that the long-term economics of this don't really work. OpenAI is burning money and Altman has already gone out in public saying how Sora-generated content is being made in large volumes for little audience.

>People are generating much more than we expected per user, and a lot of videos are being generated for very small audiences.

If OpenAI is going to pay Disney money for Winnie the Pooh smoking crack, I get the feeling that the money is going to come not from Sora profits but from companies that invested in OpenAI. Companies like Disney. Not that Sora is going to generate any profit if I can generate a video for free and I then post it on Discord instead.

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2. afavour ◴[11 Dec 25 15:31 UTC] No.46232610[source]▶
Yes, that's what makes Disney investing in OpenAI as part of this so confusing to me. Sign a licensing deal that means OpenAI pays you every time someone uses your character? Absolutely. Who cares if they're burning cash, as long as you get your payday it's all good. But investing in the company means their cash burning is your problem too. I don't know why you'd do it.
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3. johnnyanmac ◴[11 Dec 25 21:27 UTC] No.46237391[source]▶
The only explanation is if they think they can juice their stock by 2 billion and then whoever is on the ship jumps before the crash.

Sounds like Iger has his finger on the eject button. How much stock has he announced to be cashing out over 2026?

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4. johnnyanmac ◴[11 Dec 25 21:30 UTC] No.46237435[source]▶
>People are generating much more than we expected per user, and a lot of videos are being generated for very small audiences.

That was the issue even the biggest Ai fans pointed out from day one. People aren't gonna post their videos on Sora. They are gonna make it on Sora and post on TikTok. A watermark won't change that reality (and I don't think ClosedAI is worried about brand recognition and taking a hit for that).

Likenthr rest of the scene, it's so utterly tone deaf.

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5. sheeshe ◴[11 Dec 25 22:23 UTC] No.46238106{3}[source]▶
It’s not that.

It’s ego and desperation for one last hurrah. Disney has a history of being a corporate governance nightmare - which Iger ironically contributed toward fixing. He’s undoing all that now.

6. aucisson_masque ◴[11 Dec 25 22:29 UTC] No.46238191[source]▶
> I have a feeling that the long-term economics of this don't really work. OpenAI is burning money and Altman has already gone out in public saying how Sora-generated content is being made in large volumes for little audience.

Let me introduce you to ponze scheme. He is feeding the hype, that's all that matters right now. More and more cash... The only real winner will be Nvidia when the bubble explode.

7. aerostable_slug ◴[12 Dec 25 00:50 UTC] No.46239565[source]▶
It's not just that: generative AI tools make it so easy to make content that you run into discoverability problems. The pool of available content becomes huge but without a way to market or otherwise differentiate yourself, no one will likely stumble across it.

We already see this dynamic with the "vanity press" pay-to-play record labels / distributors like DistroKid: the vast majority of their catalog has never been played or was only played to test the initial upload. Huge numbers of tracks have a tiny number of views, with many literally never played. "Democratizing" content creation predictably does this, and it's frankly bizarre it wasn't anticipated.