WGA Sounds Alarm on Disney’s OpenAI Deal for Sanctioning Theft of Their Work to Big Tech

The Writers Guild of America criticized The Walt Disney Company’s deal with OpenAI that will license hundreds of the company’s characters for use on the AI company’s generative model Sora for both internal and consumer use, and vows to meet with the company to “probe” the details of the deal.

The deal excludes characters played by live-action actors whose likeness is prominently featured, but does allow for “masked, animated or creature characters” like Spider-Man, Darth Vader, and all the characters from Walt Disney Animation and Pixar.

“Disney’s deal with OpenAI appears to sanction its theft of our work and cedes the value of what we create to a tech company that has built its business off our backs,” the statement from WGA reads.

As part of the mutual bargaining agreement that ended the 2023 writers’ strike, studios like Disney are required to meet annually with the WGA to discuss advancements in the development and implementation of AI. The guild says it will be invoking that rule to discuss the OpenAI deal with Disney.

“Companies including OpenAI have stolen vast libraries of works owned by the studios and created by WGA members and Hollywood labor to train their artificial intelligence systems. We have repeatedly called for the studios to take legal action to defend the valuable intellectual property we help to create. Disney’s cease and desist letter to Google recognizes this and we will continue to pressure the companies to take action,” the union wrote.

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